Three‐dimensional multiscale MHD model of cometary plasma environments

First results of a three‐dimensional multiscale MHD model of the interaction of an expanding cometary atmosphere with the magnetized solar wind are presented. The model starts with a supersonic and super‐Alfvènic solar wind far upstream of the comet (25 Gm upstream of the nucleus) with arbitrary interplanetary magnetic field orientation. The solar wind is continuously mass loaded with cometary ions originating from a 10‐km size nucleus. The effects of photoionization, electron impact ionization, recombination, and ion‐neutral frictional drag are taken into account in the model. The governing equations are solved on an adaptively refined unstructured Cartesian grid using our new multiscale upwind scalar conservation laws‐type numerical technique (MUSCL). We have named this the multiscale adaptive upwind scheme for MHD (MAUS‐MHD). The combination of the adaptive refinement with the MUSCL‐scheme allows the entire cometary atmosphere to be modeled, while still resolving both the shock and the diamagnetic cavity of the comet. The main findings are the following: (1) Mass loading decelerates the solar wind flow upstream of the weak cometary shock wave ( M ≈ 2, M A ≈ 2), which forms at a subsolar standoff distance of about 0.35 Gm. (2) A cometary plasma cavity is formed at around 3 × 10 3 km from the nucleus. Inside this cavity the plasma expands outward due to the frictional interaction between ions and neutrals. On the nightside this plasma cavity considerably narrows and a relatively fast and dense cometary plasma beam is ejected into the tail. (3) Inside the plasma cavity a teardrop‐shaped inner shock is formed, which is terminated by a Mach disk on the nightside. Only the region inside the inner shock is the “true” diamagnetic cavity. (4) The model predicts four distinct current systems in the inner coma: the density peak current, the cavity boundary current, the inner shock current, and finally the cross‐tail current. (5) The calculated plasma parameters (magnetic field, plasma density, speed, and temperature) are in very good agreement with published Giotto observations.