3D DSMC Modeling of the Coma of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Observed by the VIRTIS and ROSINA instruments
Abstract
Since its rendez-vous with comet 67P/Chruryumov- Gerasimenko (CG), the Rosetta spacecraft has provided invaluable information contributing to our understanding of the cometary environment. On board, the VIRTIS and ROSINA instruments can both measure gas parameters in the rarefied cometary atmosphere, the coma, and provide complementary results with remote sensing and in-situ measurements, respectively. The use of a numerical model is a way to correlate the information provided by both VIRTIS and ROSINA to fully understand the volatile environment of comet CG. To describe the entire coma including the regions where collisions cannot maintain the flow in a fluid regime, the use of a kinetic method is necessary. Here, the Direct Simulation Monte-Carlo (DSMC) approach is applied to the cometary coma to solve the Boltzmann equation [1] using the Adaptive Mesh Particle Simulator (AMPS) code [2], [3], [4], [5], and then compared with VIRTIS and ROSINA data.
- Publication:
-
European Planetary Science Congress
- Pub Date:
- October 2015
- Bibcode:
- 2015EPSC...10..344F