A new model of cometary ionospheres

Abstract

The coupled continuity, momentum, and energy equations were solved for ionospheric conditions appropriate for comet Halley at 1 AU. The numerical scheme used is such that any shock transition appears naturally in the solution and no a priori assumptions are necessary. Solutions were obtained for a number of different assumptions concerning electron heating rates, but all showed that the electron temperatures increase rapidly and significantly at a distance from the nucleus where collisional electron‐neutral cooling becomes unimportant. This temperature increase is accompanied by a sharp increase in both the plasma pressure and its associated polarization electric field, causing the supersonic plasma flow to go subsonic. It is not clear at this time whether or not this sonic transition is accompanied by a shock.