Gulbis: Dust Dynamics Near Planetary Surfaces

   Evidence of dust dynamics near surfaces in the solar system ranges from particles observed levitating above the lunar horizon by the Surveyor spacecraft to the more recently discovered dust ‘ponds’ on asteroid Eros. Such dust dynamics are most likely the result of interactions between charged dust particles and plasma sheaths above planetary surfaces. 

    My thesis work involved experimental investigations of dust charging and dynamics near surfaces with sheaths and related the results to environments on the Moon, Eros, and Mercury. Thus I have a continuing interest in dust dynamics near the surfaces of bodies in the Solar System. For additional details, please see my publications on dust dynamics (listed below) and/or the Univ. of Colorado's dusty plasma group. 

Dust Dynamics Publications:

Colwell, J.E., A.A.S. Gulbis, M. Horanyi, S. Robertson, Dust Transport in Photoelectron Layers and the Formation of Dust Ponds on Eros, Icarus, 175, 159-169, 2005.

Robertson, S., A.A.S. Gulbis, J.E. Colwell, M. Horanyi, Dust Grain Charging and Levitationin a Weakly Collisonal Sheath, Phys. of Plasmas, 10(10), 3874-3880, 2003.

Sickafoose, A.A., J.E. Colwell, M. Horanyi, S. Robertson, Experimental Levitation of Dust Grains in a Plasma Sheath, J. Geophys. Res., 107(A11), 1408, doi:10.1029/2002JA009347, 2002.

Sternovsky, Z., A.A. Sickafoose, J.E. Colwell, S. Robertson, and M. Horanyi, Contact Charging of Lunar and Martian Dust Simulants, J. Geophys. Res., 107(E11), 5105, doi: 10.1029/ 2002JE001897, 2002.

Sickafoose, A.A., J.E. Colwell, M. Horanyi, S. Robertson, Experimental Investigations on Photoelectric and Triboelectric Charging of Dust, J. Geophys. Res., 106(A5), 8343-8356, 2001.

Sickafoose, A., J. Colwell, M. Horanyi, S. Robertson, B. Walch, Photoelectric Charging of Dust Particles, Frontiers in Dusty Plasmas: Proc. of the Second International Conference on the Physics of Dusty Plasmas, Hakone, Japan, May 24-28, 1999, pp.367-372, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2000.

Fabian, A., C. Krauss, A. Sickafoose, M. Horanyi, S. Robertson, Measurements of Electrical Discharges in Martian Regolith Simulant, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci., 29(2), 288-291, 2001.

Sickafoose, A.A., J.E. Colwell, M. Horanyi, S. Robertson, Photoelectric Charging of Dust Particles in Vacuum, Phys. Rev. Lett., 84, 6034-6037, 2000.