Speaker
Description
We investigate the effect of destruction processes of cosmic dust particles on their propagation near the Sun. This work is motivated by on-going observations of two spacecraft which explore the inner solar system and the vicinity of the Sun: the NASA Parker Solar Probe (PSP) and ESAs Solar Orbiter (SolO). SolO makes observations of the Sun and in-situ measurements from elliptic orbits which are ultimately going to approach as close as ~60 solar radii (~0.285 AU) to the Sun. PSP moves in elliptic orbits closer to the Sun inward to ~10 solar radii. PSP reaches within the ecliptic plane distances close to the Sun that have not been measured in-situ before. Both spacecraft can detect impacts of the cosmic dust particles, which are one of the major constituents of the interplanetary medium surrounding the Sun. The dust particles are destroyed by sputtering, fragmentation, and sublimation and near the Sun these processes become particularly important. We present model calculations of the dust trajectories in the vicinity of the Sun. The equation of motion is solved including gravity, radiation pressure force and Lorentz force. The Lorentz force is calculated assuming a Parker model of the magnetic field. The mass loss rate will be calculated along the trajectories based on mass loss rates for sublimation and solar wind sputtering. We discuss the results in the context of observational results from PSP and SolO.
