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American Geophysical Union, Geophysical Research Letters, 24(30), 2003

DOI: 10.1029/2003gl018495

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On the Solar EUV Deposition in the Inner Comae of Comets with Large Gas Production Rates: SOLAR EUV DEPOSITION IN COMETARY COMA

Journal article published in 2003 by Anil Bhardwaj ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

In this letter we have made a comparative study of degradation of solar EUV radiation and EUV-generated photoelectrons in the inner comae of comets having different gas production rates, Q, with values 1x10^28, 7x10^29, 1x10^31, and 1x10^32 s^-1. We found that in higher-Q comets the radial profile of H2O+ photo-production rate depicts a double-peak structure and that the differences in sunward and anti-sunward photoionization rates are pronounced. We show that photoelectron impact ionization is an order of magnitude larger than photoionization rate near the lower photoionization peak in comets with Q >~ 1x10^31 s^-1. The present study reveals the importance of photoelectrons relative to solar EUV as the ionization source in the inner coma of high-Q comets.