Showing papers by "Ralf Srama published in 2001"

Four years of Ulysses dust data: 1996 to 1999

Abstract: The Ulysses spacecraft is orbiting the Sun on a highly inclined ellipse ($ i = 79^{\circ}$, perihelion distance 1.3 AU, aphelion distance 5.4 AU). Between January 1996 and December 1999 the spacecraft was beyond 3 AU from the Sun and crossed the ecliptic plane at aphelion in May 1998. In this four-year period 218 dust impacts were recorded with the dust detector on board. We publish and analyse the complete data set of both raw and reduced data for particles with masses $\rm 10^{-16} g$ to $\rm 10^{-8}$ g. Together with 1477 dust impacts recorded between launch of Ulysses and the end of 1995 published earlier \cite{gruen1995c,krueger1999b}, a data set of 1695 dust impacts detected with the Ulysses sensor between October 1990 and December 1999 is now available. The impact rate measured between 1996 and 1999 was relatively constant with about 0.2 impacts per day. The impact direction of the majority of the impacts is compatible with particles of interstellar origin, the rest are most likely interplanetary particles. The observed impact rate is compared with a model for the flux of interstellar dust particles. The flux of particles several micrometers in size is compared with the measurements of the dust instruments on board Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 beyond 3 AU (Humes 1980, JGR, 85, 5841--5852, 1980). Between 3 and 5 AU, Pioneer results predict that Ulysses should have seen five times more ($\rm \sim 10 \mu m$ sized) particles than actually detected.

One year of Galileo dust data from the Jovian system: 1996

Abstract: The dust detector system onboard Galileo records dust impacts in circumjovian space since the spacecraft has been injected into a bound orbit about Jupiter in December 1995. This is the sixth in a series of papers dedicated to presenting Galileo and Ulysses dust data. We present data from the Galileo dust instrument for the period January to December 1996 when the spacecraft completed four orbits about Jupiter (G1, G2, C3 and E4). Data were obtained as high resolution realtime science data or recorded data during a time period of 100 days, or via memory read-outs during the remaining times. Because the data transmission rate of the spacecraft is very low, the complete data set (i. e. all parameters measured by the instrument during impact of a dust particle) for only 2% (5353) of all particles detected could be transmitted to Earth; the other particles were only counted. Together with the data for 2883 particles detected during Galileo's interplanetary cruise and published earlier, complete data of 8236 particles detected by the Galileo dust instrument from 1989 to 1996 are now available. The majority of particles detected are tiny grains (about 10 nm in radius) originating from Jupiter's innermost Galilean moon Io. These grains have been detected throughout the Jovian system and the highest impact rates exceeded $\rm 100 min^{-1}$. A small number of grains has been detected in the close vicinity of the Galilean moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto which belong to impact-generated dust clouds formed by (mostly submicrometer sized) ejecta from the surfaces of the moons (Kr\"uger et al., Nature, 399, 558, 1999). Impacts of submicrometer to micrometer sized grains have been detected thoughout the Jovian system and especially in the region between the Galilean moons.