Statistical Analysis of Comet Disconnection Events Using STEREO HI and a Data-assimilative Solar Wind Model

Watson, Sarah ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6566-6281; Scott, Chris ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6411-5649; Owens, Mathew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2061-2453; Barnard, Luke ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9876-4612; Lang, Matthew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1904-3700. 2025 Statistical Analysis of Comet Disconnection Events Using STEREO HI and a Data-assimilative Solar Wind Model. The Astrophysical Journal, 982 (2), 66. 9, pp. 10.3847/1538-4357/adb978

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Text (Open Access) © 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Watson_2025_ApJ_982_66.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Download (813kB) | Preview

Abstract/Summary

Comets tails can reveal information about the local solar wind conditions. They can exhibit various signatures of interactions with the solar wind including bending, developing kinks, and sometimes undergoing tail disconnections. In this study, we investigate comet tail disconnection events observed in the STEREO HI data during the period of 2007–2023. Using the Heliospheric Upwind eXtrapolation model with a time-dependency (HUXt) solar wind model alongside novel solar wind data assimilation (DA) techniques, each disconnection event was investigated to determine its cause. The resulting statistical analysis led to three main conclusions: (1) for every heliospheric current sheet (HCS) crossing predicted by HUXt that occurs when the comet is within the region of influence of DA, a tail disconnection follows; (2) for HCS crossings that occur outside the region where DA can be applied, 54.5% are followed by a tail disconnection; and (3) there is an approximately linear relationship between the speed of the solar wind at the HCS crossing and the time delay to the onset of a disconnection given by the equation V rel (km s −1 ) = (2.23 ± 0.35)Δ t (hr) + (400 ± 10)(km s −1 ).

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.3847/1538-4357/adb978
ISSN:	0004-637X
Date made live:	31 Mar 2025 09:42 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/539181

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