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Ceres interaction with the solar wind
Author(s) -
Lindkvist Jesper,
Holmström Mats,
Fatemi Shahab,
Wieser Martin,
Barabash Stas
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2016gl072375
Subject(s) - sublimation (psychology) , water vapor , solar wind , atmospheric sciences , environmental science , physics , production rate , plasma , meteorology , industrial engineering , psychology , quantum mechanics , engineering , psychotherapist
Abstract The solar wind interaction with Ceres is studied for a high water vapor release from its surface using a hybrid model including photoionization. We use a water vapor production rate of 6 kg/s, thought to be due to subsurface sublimation, corresponding to a detection on 6 March 2013 by the Herschel Space Observatory. We present the general morphology of the plasma interactions, both close to Ceres and on a larger scale. Mass loading of water ions causes a magnetic pileup region in front of Ceres, where the solar wind deflects up to 15° and slows down by 15%. The global plasma interaction with Ceres is not greatly affected by the source location of water vapor nor on gravity, only on the production rate of water vapor. On a global scale, Ceres has a comet‐like interaction with the solar wind with observable perturbations farther than 250 Ceres radii downstream of the body.