1. Prediction for Encounter with Ion Tail of Comet
45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova, ~July 6, 2006
(Sofie Spjuth)
Green: comet path
Yellow: ion tail for various vsw (blue: 400 km/s)
Red square: Rosetta
For vsw = 400 km/s, Rosetta passed within 0.05 AU from ion tail at ~0.7 AU from comet.

3. Problem(-s) And the list is not exhaustive...
Comet tail all to wide
Current (from MAG) does not make sense -- radial along tail direction
What is this?
What should a real comet tail look like?

4. Ulysses Encounter with Hyakutake Ion Tail May 1, 1996
Now concluded by Some to be no comet tail at all...
Ulysses-comet: > 3 AU
Rosetta-comet: 0.7 AU
Jones et al.,
Nature, 2000

5. So, are there any real comet tail observations?
Sofie also checked for possible tail crossings for other s/c, including Spaceship Earth
PRAO-student Martin Hult checked ACE/IMP-8 data for Sofie’s pre- and postdictions
Best event: P/Catalina (2005 JQ5) July 9, (DOY 190)

6. Something?
+ current sheet(?)
+ heavy ions
- but density jump...

7. Is this a comet tail crossing?
Minimum variance on B?
Models for what to find?
Other s/w disturbances -- what do they look like?? What do you know?
Any unambiguous signature of a comet tail?
Ideas?
Comments?