Abstract
Highly collimated bursts of energetic ions up to about 1 MeV/n have been observed from Comet Giacobini-Zinner and Comet Halley. The source of high energy charged particles in comets may be found in the impulsive reconnection process associated to disconnection events of comet tails, when it crosses through an interplanetary sector boundary, or in a long lived process associated with the activation of the tail current sheet by interplanetary or flare shock waves. In order to probe the nature of the reconnection process the energy spectrum of the accelerated particles is investigated and predictions are made about the characteristics of photon emission fluxes produced by electron capture of the energetic ions during their interaction with cometary plasmas and neutral matter.
