Development and global oscillations of cometary ionospheres

Representing the cometary ionosphere by a single fluid model characterized by an average ionization time scale, we have studied both its development as a comet approaches the sun and its response to sudden changes in the solar wind conditions. Three different nuclear sizes, small average, and very large, as well as three different modes of energy addition to the atmosphere, adiabatic, isothermal, and suprathermal, are considered. The crucial parameter determining both the nature and the size of the ionosphere is the average ionization time scale within the ionosphere. We identify two different ionization time scales: one during ''quiet'' solar wind conditions when photoionization is the principal source of ionization there, and a secod, much shorter time scale, subsequent to the encounter by a comet of a solar wind high-speed stream, when a beam of energetic electrons discharged from the comet's tail into the ionosphere is the main ionizing agent