Variability of Antenna Signals From Dust Impacts

Abstract

Electric field instruments carried by spacecraft (SC) are complementary to dedicated dust detectors by registering transient voltage perturbations caused by impact-generated plasma. The signal waveform contains information about the interaction between the impact-generated plasma cloud and the elements of SC-antenna system. The variability of antenna signals from dust impacts has not yet been systematically characterized. A set of laboratory measurements are performed to characterize signal variations in response to SC parameters (bias voltage and antenna configuration) and impactor parameters (impact speed and composition). The measurements demonstrate that dipole antenna configurations are sensitive to dust impacts and that the detected signals vary with impact location. When dust impacts occur at low speeds, the antennas typically register smaller amplitudes and less characteristic impact signal shapes. In this case, impact event identification may be more challenging due to lower signal-to-noise ratios and/or more variable waveforms shapes, indicating the compound nature of nonfully developed impact-generated plasmas. To investigate possible variations in the impacting materials, the measurements are carried out using two dust samples with different mass densities: iron and aluminum. No significant variations of the measured waveform or plasma parameters obtained from data analysis are observed between the two materials used.

Manuscript accepted online by JGR: Space Physics on 22 March 2023

References in corpus (4)

• The Near-Sun Dust Environment: Initial Observations from Parker Solar Probe
• The importance of monopole antennas for dust observations: why Wind/WAVES does not detect nanodust
• Laboratory Study of Antenna Signals Generated by Dust Impacts on Spacecraft
• Electrostatic Model for Antenna Signal Generation From Dust Impacts

Cited by in corpus (4)

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• A solar rotation signature in cosmic dust: frequency analysis of dust particle impacts on the Wind spacecraft
• On the distribution of the the near-solar bound dust grains detected with Parker Solar Probe