Survey Telescope Monitoring of Active Comets for Cometary Dust and Solar Wind Research

This project involves the analysis of comet images to estimate the dust emission history of each comet based on the morphology of its dust tail, and the solar wind conditions at the object based on the orientation and shape of its ion tail. The techniques are to be used to interpret existing and new images of comets obtained by professional and amateur observers. The ultimate aim of the project is to create a processing system that will perform routine, and ideally automated, analyses of active comets observed by survey telescopes, especially the Large Scale Synoptic Telescope, LSST.