Dusty Plasma Effects in Near Earth Space and Interplanetary Medium

Abstract

Dusty plasma effects in near earth space and interplanetary mediumSpace Science Reviews, 2011, Vol. 161, Issue 1-4: 1-47 10.1007/s11214-011-9762-3Access to the published version may require subscription. Published with permission from:Springer Science+Business Media B.V.Space Science Reviews manuscript No. (will be inserted by the editor) Dusty plasma effects in near Earth space and interplanetary mediumReceived: date / Accepted: date Abstract We review dust and meteoroid fluxes and their dusty plasma effects in the interplanetary medium near Earth orbit and in the Earth's ionosphere. Aside from in-situ measurements from sounding rockets and spacecraft, experimental data cover radar and optical observations of meteors. Dust plasma interactions in the interplanetary medium are observed by the detection of charged dust particles, by the detection of dust that is accelerated in the solar wind and by the detection of ions and neutrals that are released from the dust. These interactions are not well understood and lack quantitative description. There is still a huge discrepancy in the estimates of meteoroid mass deposition into the atmosphere. The radar meteor observations are of particular interest for determining this number. Dust measurements from spacecraft require a better understanding of the dust impact ionization process, as well as of the dust charging processes. The latter are also important for further studying nano dust trajectories in the solar wind. Moreover understanding of the complex dependencies that cause the variation of nano dust fluxes is still a challenge.

Previously hidden low-energy ions: a better map of near-Earth space and the terrestrial mass balance

“…Over geological timescales large objects can dominate the average mass inflow and also carry enough energy to change the global conditions for life (Toon et al 1997). For a typical year, many estimates are consistent with a total inflow of at least a few tons d −1 (100 g s −1 ) to hundreds of tons d −1 (a few kg s −1 ) (Love and Brownlee 1993, Engwall 2009, Mann et al 2011, Plane 2012. This is similar to our estimates of the mass outflow from Earth.…”

“…Much of the number flux of material hitting the atmosphere comes in the form of small particles, less than about a mg, or one mm in radius (Love andBrownlee 1993, Ceplecha et al 1998). Different techniques are used to detect incoming particles of different sizes, and the inflow varies with location, day of the year and time during the day (Szasz et al 2004, Mann et al 2011. For observations in the atmosphere, meteor radars and optical camera networks are used (Ceplecha et al 1998, Flynn and Sutton 2006, Campbell-Brown et al 2012.…”

Secondary Emission From Non-Spherical Dust Grains With Rough Surfaces: Application to Lunar Dust

“…For a description of charging by secondary emission, an effective charging yield, δ * = δ/(1 − η) is more appropriate because it is roughly proportional to the surface potential that the dust grain would reach under bombardment by electrons of a particular energy if all other charging currents could be neglected. This condition is fulfilled in many laboratory experiments (Mann et al 2011).…”

“…Following models designed for scanning electron microscopy (e.g., Li et al 2008;Hovington et al 1997aHovington et al , 1997b, we have developed a numerical model of secondary emission from spherical objects suitable for various materials including metals (Richterová et al 2006a), insulators (Richterová et al 2007;Němeček et al 2011), and complex compounds (Richterová et al 2006b;Mann et al 2011). These papers give many examples of excellent agreement of model results with laboratory measurements on spherical samples; the deviations are of the order of single units percent.…”

Dust dynamic pressure and magnetopause displacement: reasons for non-detection

“…Another component is the nanodust that is picked up by the solar wind. Its total momentum flux is, however, estimated to ≤ 10 −6 of that of the solar wind near 1 AU (Mann et al, 2011). We nonetheless insert the respective parameters here for illustration.…”