HR: 0800h
AN: SH51D-0296    [Abstracts]
TI: Small Interstellar Dust Grains Near the Heliosphere and Their Transport Into the Solar System
AU: Czechowski, A
EM: ace@telemann.cbk.waw.pl
AF: Institute of Space Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Bartycka 18 A, Warsaw, 00-176 Poland
AU: * Mann, I
EM: imann@uni-muenster.de
AF: nstitut fuer Planetologie, Westfaelische Wilhelms - Universitaet, Wilhelm - Klemm - Str. 10, Muenster, 48149 Germany
AB: In distinction to larger grains that penetrate easily into the inner solar system, small interstellar dust grains, with much larger values of charge-to-mass ratio, are coupled efficiently to the interstellar magnetic field and so mostly prevented from entering the heliosphere. We present the results of simulations of small charged dust particle motion in the transition region between the undisturbed interstellar medium and the heliosphere. The velocity distributions of small dust grains near the heliosphere are found to be highly sensitive to the presence of sharp shock waves in the transition region, like the heliospheric bow shock. We also simulate the motion of those small charged grains that were able to cross the heliopause and find that, in the region close to the ecliptic plane, their further penetration into the inner solar system is facilitated by the presence of wavy heliospheric current sheet.
DE: 2124 Heliopause and solar wind termination
DE: 2129 Interplanetary dust
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting