Radar Detectability Studies of Slow and Small Zodiacal Dust Cloud Particles. III. The Role of Sodium and the Head Echo Size on the Probability of Detection

AbstractThe COBE Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment has obtained some of the most extensive observations of the interplanetary dust (IPD) cloud ever assembled. For the 10 months of cryogenic operation, the brightness of the entire celestial, sphere was mapped with an 0.7° x 0.7° field of view at wavelengths of 1.25, 2.2, 3.5, 4.9, 12, 25, 60, 100, 140, and 240 μm, and the linear polarization was mapped at 1.25, 2.2, and 3.5 μm. Observations with reduced sensitivity continued at all wavelengths short of 12 μm for over 3 years after cryogen expiration. Throughout these observations, nearly 1/2 of the sky was mapped every day at elongation angles ranging from 64° to 124°. I describe the DIRBE and the general character of the infrared sky, outline the DIRBE team's approach to isolating the IPD signal, and review results of our initial studies of the zodiacal dust bands, the circumsolar dust ring, and the character of IPD cloud particles.

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Infrared observation of the zodiacal dust cloud

The Astronomical Journal ◽

10.1086/112737 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 85 ◽

pp. 765 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

S. D. Price ◽

T. L. Murdock ◽

L. P. Marcotte

Keyword(s):

Dust Cloud ◽

Infrared Observation ◽

Zodiacal Dust

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EXPANDING THE CHARA/FLUOR HOT DISKS SURVEY

Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation ◽

10.1142/s2251171713400102 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 02 (02) ◽

pp. 1340010 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

B. MENNESSON ◽

N. SCOTT ◽

T. TEN BRUMMELAAR ◽

G. BRYDEN ◽

N. TURNER ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar System ◽

Main Sequence ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Dust Cloud ◽

Main Sequence Stars ◽

Second Development ◽

Zodiacal Dust ◽

Dust Component ◽

Initial Survey ◽

Better Than

Little is presently known about the hot (>300 K) dust component of debris disks surrounding main sequence stars, similar to the zodiacal dust cloud found in the inner solar system. While extensive surveys have been carried out from space, the majority of detections have surprisingly come from the ground, where near infrared interferometric observations have recently revealed small (~1%) resolved excesses around a dozen nearby main sequence stars. Most of these results have come from the CHARA array "FLUOR" instrument (Mt. Wilson, CA), which has demonstrated the best sensitivity worldwide so far for this type of studies, and has carried out an initial survey of ~40 stars. In order to further understand the origin of this "hot dust phenomenon", we will extend this initial survey to a larger number of stars and lower excess detection limits, i.e. higher visibility accuracy providing higher contrast measurements. To this end, two major instrumental developments are underway at CHARA. The first one aims at improving FLUOR's sensitivity to a median K-band magnitude limit of 5 (making 200 targets available). The second development is based on a method that we recently developed for accurate (better than 0.1%) null depth measurements of stars, and that can be extended to regular interferometric visibility measurements.

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