Estimating the solar wind pressure at comet 67P from Rosetta magnetic field measurements

Németh, Zoltán and Dósa, Melinda and Goetz, C. and Madanian, H. and Opitz, Andrea and Richter, K. and Szegő, Károly and Timár, Anikó (2017) Estimating the solar wind pressure at comet 67P from Rosetta magnetic field measurements. In: European Planetary Science Congress 2017, 2017. szeptember 17-22, Riga, Lettország.

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Abstract

The solar wind pressure is an important parameter of planetary space weather, which plays a crucial role in the interaction of the solar wind with the planetary plasma environment. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to measure its value at every locations where it would be useful or needed. Spacecraft observing the internal dynamics of a planetary magnetosphere, for example, would benefit greatly from solar wind pressure data, but as the solar wind does not penetrate to their locations, direct measurements are impossible. It is well known that the maximum of the magnetic field in the pile-up region of a magnetosphere is proportional to the square root of the solar wind pressure. Recent investigation of Rosetta data revealed that the maximum of the magnetic field in the pile-up region can be approximated by magnetic field measurements performed in the inner regions of the cometary magnetosphere close to the boundary of the diamagnetic cavity. This relationship holds for several months spanning from June 2015 to January 2016. Here we investigate the possibility to use this relationship to determine a solar wind pressure proxy for this time interval using magnetic field data measured by the Rosetta Magnetometer. This pressure proxy would be useful not only for other Rosetta related studies, but could also serve as a new independent input database for space weather propagation to other locations in the Solar System.

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