Optical observations of ion tail structures and velocity fields in comet Giacobini-Zinner near the time of the ICE encounter

Abstract

Observations of constituents of the neutral coma (CN. C 2. CH. O. H) of Giacobini-Zinner were made for a period of nearly three weeks during late August/early September 1985 from La Palma Observatory, Canaries Is. in addition to studies of structures and flows in the ion coma and tail. The neutral coma (in CN) was observed to extend to a radius of at least 400,000 Km, far beyond the “bow wave” identified by the ICE spacecraft. The ion coma (detected to a sunward distance of about 50,000 Km) and ion tail fan (max. length about 500,000 Km, recorded in CO + and H 2O + were also observed throughout the period before and after the ICE encounter. An extended Type I ion tail central condensation was not observed. The maximum observed extent of the ‘ionospheric tail’ was about 50,000 Km, five hours prior to the ICE encounter. This ionospheric tail rapidly diffused into a broad tail fan.