Plasma conductivity in the comet Halley ionosphere
The conductivity tensor for a 3-species plasma is shown to become diagonal in the frame of reference moving with electrons. In this frame anisotropy of the conductivity (associated with the magnetic field) disappears. If electrons are moving with ions (so that the electric current is small), and the...
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| Published in | Advances in space research Vol. 20; no. 2; pp. 287 - 289 |
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| Main Authors | , |
| Format | Journal Article |
| Language | English |
| Published |
Elsevier Ltd
1997
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| Online Access | Get full text |
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| Summary: | The conductivity tensor for a 3-species plasma is shown to become diagonal in the frame of reference moving with electrons. In this frame anisotropy of the conductivity (associated with the magnetic field) disappears. If electrons are moving with ions (so that the electric current is small), and the effective collision time, τ, is greater than the electron gyration time (
ωτ ≳ 1), then the magnetic Reynolds number Re
m ⪢ 1, and an approximation of ideal MHD holds. According to the Giotto data, this is the case for comet Halley. |
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| Bibliography: | SourceType-Scholarly Journals-2 ObjectType-Feature-2 ObjectType-Conference Paper-1 content type line 23 SourceType-Conference Papers & Proceedings-1 ObjectType-Article-3 |
| ISSN: | 0273-1177 1879-1948 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/S0273-1177(97)00549-8 |