Dust Observations by the MAVEN Spacecraft at Mars associated with the Comet Siding Spring Encounter

Laila Andersson1, David Malaspina2, Gregory T Delory3, Robert Ergun4, Michiko W Morooka5, Christopher M Fowler6, Tess McEnulty1, Anders I Eriksson7 and Bruce Martin Jakosky8, (1)University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (2)Univ Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)Heliospace Corp., Berkeley, CA, United States, (4)University of Colorado Boulder, Laboratory for Atmsopheric and Space Physics, Boulder, United States, (5)LASP/University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States, (6)West Virginia University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Morgantown, WV, United States, (7)IRF Swedish Institute of Space Physics Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden, (8)University of Colorado Boulder, 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.
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