Relevant dust properties versus particle mass. Top panel: β-ratio versus particle mass following the astronomical silicates of Gustafson (1994) adapted to have a maximum of β = 1.6 (Sterken et al. 2013). Middle panel: Subsequent heliocentric speed of ISD particles (solid black curve) dependent on the particle mass using Eq. (4); Earth’s orbital speed (dashed blue line) for comparison. Bottom panel: Signal amplitude of a single dust particle, taken as m v^3.5 as per Eq. (3), for an IDP with an impact speed of 20 km/s (solid magenta line), a β-meteoroid of 50 km/s (dash-dotted blue line), and an ISD particle in March (dashed red curve) and in September (dotted green curve). No line was plotted for β-meteoroids above m > 10⁻¹⁶ kg because β-meteoroids are constrained to lower masses (Wehry & Mann 1999; Moorhead 2021). The secondary horizontal axis of the top panel gives the particle radius, assuming spherical and compact particles with a density of 2500 kg/m³ (Sterken et al. 2013). ISD with β > 1.38 (dashed blue horizontal in the top panel) cannot reach Earth’s orbit; it is excluded (grey-shaded area).