Viscous-like Interaction of the Solar Wind with the Plasma Tail of Comet Swift-Tuttle

Abstract

We compare the results of the numerical simulation of the viscous-like interaction of the solar wind with the plasma tail of a comet, with velocities of H2O+ ions in the tail of comet Swift-Tuttle determined by means of spectroscopic, ground based observations. Our aim is to constrain the value of the basic parameters in the viscous-like interaction model: the effective Reynolds number of the flow and the interspecies coupling timescale. We find that in our simulations the flow rapidly evolves from an arbitrary initial condition to a quasi-steady state for which there is a good agreement between the simulated tailward velocity of H2O+ ions and the kinematics derived from the observations. The fiducial case of our model, characterized by a low effective Reynolds number (Re \approx 20 and selected on the basis of a comparison to in situ measurements of the plasma flow at comet Halley, yields an excellent fit to the observed kinematics. Given the agreement between model and observations, with no ad hoc assumptions, we believe that this result suggests that viscous-like momentum transport may play an important role in the interaction of the solar wind and the cometary plasma environment.