Abstract
The Langmuir Probe and Waves (LPW) instrument onboard the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft detects electric field signals in a dipole configuration using two long identical stacer booms. It has been shown that the electric field instruments are capable of detecting dust impacts in different space environments as transient pulses.
This technique has been previously applied to detect dust impacts in space for several decades, nevertheless, not all characteristics of signal generation by dust impacts are fully understood. We present a preliminary statistical analysis of the 2015 year of various pulses potentially generated by dust impacts observed on the MAVEN spacecraft.
Out of all the measuring modes, we have used the medium frequency burst mode; the data covers 62.5 milliseconds using 4096 measured points which gives us a sampling frequency of 66.67 kHz. The medium frequency band gives data points in close proximity to each other and the waveforms are long enough to detect pulses as compared to other time series.
Altogether, we have identified 9848 events observed between the altitudes of about 150 km and 6000 km. These events are the most potential candidates of dust impacts exhibiting different polarities.
Hence, we have categorized the dust events based on their shape and the local plasma environment. We found a prominent lack of events in the shadow region, behind the planet.
A possible source of these observed dust events is discussed.