Analysis of the sensor characteristics of the Galileo dust detector with collimated Jovian dust stream particles

Abstract

The Dust Detector System onboard Galileo records dust impacts in the Jupiter system. Impact events are classified into four quality classes. Class 3, our highest quality class, has always been noise-free and, therefore, contains only true dust impacts. Depending on the noise environment, Class 2 are dust impacts or noise. Within 20RJ from Jupiter (Jupiter radius, RJ = 71,492 km) Class 2 shows clear indications for contamination by noise. We analyse the dust data from Galileos prime Jupiter mission (1996 and 1997), separate dust impacts from noise events and derive a complete denoised set of Galileo dust data (Classes 2 and 3). Collimated streams of nanometer-sized dust particles which have been detected throughout the Jovian system (Grun et al., 1998, J. Geophys. Res., 103, 20,011–20,022) are used to analyse the sensitive area and the field of view of the dust detector itself. The sensitive area for stream particles which trigger Class 3 events is 110±37 cm2. This is almost a factor of ten smaller than the total sensitive area for Class 2 impacts (1000 cm2). Correspondingly, the field of view of the detector for Class 3 stream particles is reduced from 140 to 96°. The magnetometer boom and other instruments on board Galileo cause a significant shadowing of the field of view of the dust sensor. Our analysis is supplementary to ground calibrations of the dust instrument because the low masses and high speeds of the stream particles could not be achieved in the laboratory. Our new results have important consequences for the analysis of dust in the Jupiter system.