Examining Dust Directionality with the Parker Solar Probe FIELDS Instrument

Abstract

Parker Solar Probe ’s ( PSP ’s) FIELDS instrument provides a measure of the dust impact rate on the spacecraft with a full-coverage summary of the voltages recorded by the spacecraft’s antennas. From consecutively sampled periods throughout PSP ’s orbit, FIELDS stores the maximum amplitude measured by each active antenna. The occurrence of a dust impact during a given period can be identified by these amplitudes exceeding a few tens of millivolts, and a dust grain’s impact location can be approximated using the differential amplitudes between antennas. The impact locations indicated in the data are inspected for compatibility with the incident directions of prograde, retrograde, and β -meteoroid orbits in the ecliptic. Important features in the data are consistent with the incidence of β -meteoroids, but others are better explained by the incidence of grains on prograde or retrograde orbits.