Plasma density enhancement at the Comet Halley diamagnetic cavity boundary

A one-dimensional single-fluid MHD model was used by Cravens (1989) to predict the existence of a narrow (50 km) layer of enhanced plasma density at the boundary of the Comet Halley diamagnetic cavity. The existence of such a layer was confirmed by measurements made by the Giotto ion mass spectrometer (Goldstein et al., 1989). Here, the time-dependent coupled continuity equations are solved for several species including H3O(+), H2O(+), OH(+), O(+), NH4(+), NH3(+), CH4(+), and CH3(+). For several ion species, factors affecting the magnitude of this enhancement and its relationship to the thickness of the transition layer are investigated. For example, ion species with short chemical lifetimes are shown to have smaller density enhancements than species with longer lifetimes. The cometocentric distance of the cavity boundary also strongly affects the magnitude of the density enhancement; the enhancement increases with increasing distance.