A solar rotation signature in cosmic dust: Frequency analysis of dust particle impacts on the Wind spacecraft

¹ ETH Zürich, Institute for Particle and Astroparticle Physics, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
² ETH Zürich, Department of Environmental Systems Science, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
³ Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
⁴ Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institute of Geophysics and Extraterrestrial Physics, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany
⁵ Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
⁶ University of Colorado, Boulder, Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences Department, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
⁷ University of Colorado, Boulder, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
⁸ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
⁹ University of Colorado, Boulder, Department of Physics, Boulder, CO 80309, USA

Received: 22 March 2024
Accepted: 6 July 2024

Abstract

Aims. Dust particle impacts on the Wind spacecraft were detected with its plasma wave instrument Wind/WAVES. Frequency analysis on the resulting dust impact time series has revealed spectral peaks indicative of a solar rotation signature. We investigated whether this solar rotation signature is embedded in the interplanetary or in the interstellar dust (ISD) and whether it is caused by co-rotating interaction regions (CIRs), by the sector structure of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), or by external effects.

Methods. We performed frequency analysis on different subsets of the data to investigate the origin of these spectral peaks, comparing segments of Wind’s orbit when the spacecraft moved against or with the ISD inflow direction and comparing the time periods of the ISD focusing phase and the ISD defocusing phase of the solar magnetic cycle. A superposed epoch analysis of the number of dust impacts during CIRs was used to investigate the systematic effect of CIRs. Case studies of time periods with frequent or infrequent occurrences of CIRs were performed and compared to synthetic data of cosmic dust impacts affected by CIRs. We performed similar case studies for time periods with a stable or chaotic IMF sector structure. The superposed epoch analysis was repeated for a time series of the spacecraft floating potential.

Results. Spectral peaks were found at the solar rotation period of ∼27 d and its harmonics at 13.5 d and 9 d. This solar rotation signature may affect both interplanetary and interstellar dust. The appearance of this signature correlates with the occurrence of CIRs but not with the stability of the IMF sector structure. The CIRs cause, on average, a reduction in the number of dust impact detections. Periodic changes of the spacecraft’s floating potential were found to partially counteract this reduction by enhancing the instrument’s sensitivity to dust impacts; these changes of the floating potential are thus unlikely to be the cause of the solar rotation signature.