Langmuir Waves at Comet 67P: Rosetta Observations

Many different kinds of waves occur in the ionised coma of a comet, and these waves span a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. For example, ESA's Rosetta spacecraft, which spent to years near comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from 2014 to 2016, detected singing comet waves, steepened magnetosonic waves, ion Bernstein waves, ion acoustic waves, and lower hybrid waves.

Using data from the Rosetta Plasma Consortium of the Rosetta mission, we present a study of waves near the electron plasma frequency that we identify as Langmuir waves (Gunell et al. 2025, doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202555043). These Langmuir waves were observed when the comet was near perihelion. During this period a diamagnetic cavity had developed around the nucleus, and outside this cavity steepened magnetosonic waves were observed. Significant Langmuir wave activity was detected only in the environment outside the diamagnetic cavity, where simultaneously the steepened magnetosonic waves were observed. We suggest a possible generation mechanism for the Langmuir waves and a scenario through which energy can be transferred from the large and slow scale of the steepened waves to the small and fast scales of the Langmuir waves.