P43A-3968:
Dust Observations by the MAVEN Spacecraft at Mars associated with the Comet Siding Spring Encounter
Thursday, 18 December 2014
Laila Andersson1, David Malaspina2, Gregory T Delory3, Robert Ergun2, Michiko W. Morooka4, Christopher M Fowler2, Tess McEnulty1, Anders I Eriksson5 and Bruce Martin Jakosky6, (1)University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (2)Univ Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, (4)LASP/University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States, (5)IRF Swedish Institute of Space Physics Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden, (6)Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, CO, United States
Abstract:
The MAVEN mission carries a Langmuir Probe and Waves instrument designed to measure the electron density and temperature in Mars' ionosphere. Electric field waves are part of the Langmuir Probe and Waves instrument. The electric field instrument can be configured to measure the dust environment at the spacecraft using a similar technique of that on the STEREO mission. The sensitivity to dust grains has been estimated from data collected during the MAVEN cruise, during which numerous dust impacts have been detected. The MAVEN spacecraft will be at Mars during the Comet Siding Spring encounter and the electric field instrument will be monitoring the dust fluxes while at high altitudes. The flux levels and the timing of dust from the the Comet Siding Spring will be presented and compared to the predicted numbers in this presentation.
