A 1D Model of Radial Ion Motion Interrupted by Ion–Neutral Interactionsin a Cometary Coma

Abstract

Because ion–neutral reaction cross sections are energy dependent, the distance from a cometary nucleus within which ions remain collisionally coupled to the neutrals is dictated not only by the comet’s activity level but also by the electromagnetic fields in the coma. Here we present a 1D model simulating the outward radial motion of water group ions with radial acceleration by an ambipolar electric field interrupted primarily by charge transfer processes with H 2 O. We also discuss the impact of plasma waves. For a given electric field profile, the model calculates key parameters, including the total ion density, n I , the H 3 O + /H 2 O + number density and flux ratios, R dens and R flux , and the mean ion drift speed, , as a function of cometocentric distance. We focus primarily on a coma roughly resembling that of the ESA Rosetta mission target comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko near its perihelion in 2015 August. In the presence of a weak ambipolar electric field in the radial direction the model results suggest that the neutral coma is not sufficiently dense to keep the mean ion flow speed close to that of the neutrals by the spacecraft location (∼200 km from the nucleus). In addition, for electric field profiles giving n I and within limits constrained by measurements, the R dens values are significantly higher than values typically observed. However, when including the ion motion in large-amplitude plasma waves in the model, results more compatible with observations are obtained. We suggest that the variable and often low H 3 O + /H 2 O + number density ratios observed may reflect nonradial ion trajectories strongly influenced by electromagnetic forces and/or plasma instabilities, with energization of the ion population by plasma waves.