English

Will nanodust reappear in STEREO/WAVES data?

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2025-01-28 v1 Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics Space Physics

Abstract

Nanodust particles produced near the Sun by collisional breakup of larger grains are accelerated in the magnetised solar wind and reach high speeds outwards of 1 AU. Vaporisation and ionisation of fast dust grains impacting a spacecraft produce voltage pulses on wave instruments that enable them to act as dust detectors. Wave instruments on STEREO and on Cassini during its cruise phase detected a highly variable flux of fast nanodust. Both detections took place when the orientation of the solar magnetic dipole produced an interplanetary electric field that focused nanoparticles towards the heliospheric current sheet (HCS) - a geometry that is recurring because of the periodicity of solar activity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2501.16133,
  title  = {Will nanodust reappear in STEREO/WAVES data?},
  author = {Nicole Meyer-Vernet},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.16133},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

3 pages 1 figure submitted to RNAAS

R2 v1 2026-06-28T21:19:49.803Z