Heliospheric Current Sheet Probe

Space explorations by spacecraft have detected the solar wind and the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), whose existences had been suggested to explain the narrow comet plasma tail formation before the space age. Thereafter, a global magnetic structure seperating the opposite polarity regions of IMF in the heliosphere was discovered (Wilcox and Ness, 1965). It is called helispheric current sheet (HCS). Comets have been proved as the useful heliospheric probes. Recently, another capability of comet as a probe of HCS was suggested by Yi (1994). In the process of comet plasma tail disconnection events (EDs) showing the ray folding and main tail severance between the folding rays (Brandt, 1982), the folding rays preceding DE might be the visualization of HCS draped around comet, In order to test this new idea, the association of comet Halley 16 DEs with comet crossings of HCS confirmed by spacecraft observations at the time of comet Halley apparition 1985~1986 was investigated.