Cometary plasma processes

Abstract

The present conference on cometary plasma processes encompasses cometary analogies of solar-wind interactions with planets, cometary plasma observations and simulations, disconnection events in Comet Halley, the spectrum and energy of solar-wind turbulence related to comets, and observations of the velocity distributions of pickup ions and ion fluxes. Specific issues addressed include dust-plasma interactions in the cometary environment, the simulation of cometary shocks, MHD models of cometary plasma, permanent and nonstationary plasma phenomena in Comet Halley's head, mirror-mode waves at Comet Halley, and the spectral structure of ultralow-frequency electromagnetic fields near Comet Halley. Also addressed are cometary linear instabilities, a quasilinear theory of the ion-cyclotron instability and its application to the cometary plasma, acceleration mechanisms for cometary ions, and the magnetic-field turbulence at Comet Halley observed by Vega 1 and 2.