Nanodust in the Heliosphere

Abstract

The NASA Parker Solar Probe and the ESA Solar Orbiter will explore the source region of the solar wind within 20 solar radii. Their unprecedented in-situ measurements are also expected to shed light on the nature of the F-corona and the existence of a halo of nanodust. Such a dust complex might play an important role in the generation of high-speed nanodust grains and the inner-source pickup ions. A brief summary of previous works on this topic is given here to be followed by a sketch on a plan to integrate MHD simulation of solar wind flow dynamics, orbital motion of charged nanodust and the production of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) in the interplanetary space.