Modeling the Solar Probe Plus Dust Environment: Comparison with MESSENGER Observations

Details Modeling the Solar Probe Plus Dust Environment: Comparison with MESSENGER Observations Modeling the Solar Probe Plus Dust Environment: Comparison with MESSENGER Observations

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p21a1202s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P21A-1202

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

[2129] Interplanetary Physics / Interplanetary Dust, [6299] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / General Or Miscellaneous, [7594] Solar Physics, Astrophysics, And Astronomy / Instruments And Techniques

Scientific paper

NASA’s Solar Probe Plus mission will be the first to approach the Sun as close as 9 solar radii from the surface. This mission will provide the only in-situ observations of the Sun’s corona. In the absence of observational data (e.g. Helios, Pioneer), specifically at distances less than 0.4 AU, the precise ambient dust distributions at these distances remain unknown and limited to extrapolative models for distances < 1 AU (e.g. Mann et al. 2004). For the Solar Probe Plus mission, it has become critical to characterize the inner solar system dust environment in order to examine potential impacts on spacecraft health and attitude. We have implemented the Mann et al. (2004) and Grün et al. (1985) dust distribution theory along with Mie scattering effects to determine the magnitude of solar irradiance scattered towards an optical sensor such as a star tracker as a function of ecliptic latitude and longitude for distances 0.05 to 1 AU. Background irradiance data from NASA’s MESSENGER mission (down to 0.3 AU) reveal trends consistent with our model predictions, potentially validating Mann et al. (2004) and Grün et al. (1985) theory, but perhaps suggesting an enhancement of dust density short ward of 0.3 AU. This paper will present the scattering model and analysis of MESSENGER data gathered to date, during the phasing orbits, and includes star tracker background irradiance, irradiance distribution over the sky, and effects on star magnitude sensitivity and position accuracy.

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