Home | Team members | ProgramWelcome to the Work Webpage of the ISSI team on Modeling cometary environments in the context of the heritage of the Giotto mission to comet Halley and of forthcoming new observations at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
The project is devoted to obtain better insights on the problem of modeling the solar wind – ionized coma interaction. The emphasis will be made on the fluid model approaches, especially on the question how adequately the macroscopically introduced fluid parameters reflect the real micro-physical effects, especially- those, related to mass-loading and photo-chemical reacti ons. The problem of the importance of the applied specific numerical techniques for the same set of fluid equations on the simulation results will be also addressed.
The basic aims of the project’s activities are:
Advance our understanding of the basic processes governing the interaction of solar wind plasma with the cometary ionized coma through a combination of modeling and comparison to observations.
Intercompare the many different models of the global plasma interaction at comet environment using identical input conditions and embedded into the models processes. This will help publishing data comparisons and science conclusions drawn from the different model results on a common footing.
Reconsideration and possible reinterpretation of some experimentally observed but not uniquely explained phenomena in the comet Halley environment
To provide additional tools for possible interpretation of oncoming observation of the comet 67P/CG environment during the concluding stage of the Rosetta mi ssion. Special attention will be paid on the influence of the inner boundary condition (determined by neutral coma dynamics) on the global interaction with the solar wind.
The work will be based on implementation of models, developed by team member, as wide as possible utilization of accessible for the space community models of other gropes; experimental data obtained during past comet mission (especially Halley missions) – some of them – from instruments, designed by team members.
Many simulation runs of the expected scenarios around comet 67P/CG during the Rosetta mission will be conducted.
Team members: Murray Dryer, Susan McKenna-Lawlor, Wing-Huen IP, Vladimir Baranov, Michail Lebedev, Alexander Osiptsov, Martin Rubin, Mehdi Benna, Monio Kartalev
Invited experts: Kathrin Altwegg, Hans Balsiger, Anil Bhardwaj, Chin-Chun Wu, Marina Galand, Valentina Keremidarska
Invited Young Scientists: Susanne Finklenburg, Stavro Ivanovski, Christoph Koenders, Svetoslav Nakov