Planetary Aerosol Monitor/Interplanetary Dust Analyzer

The Laboratory for Astrophysics at the University of Florida has developed a dust analyzer capable of measuring key particle physical parameters without destruction or alteration of the dust grains. A laser illuminates dust grains passing through the device and a set of detectors obtains intensity and polarization of the scattered light at specific scattering angles. The choice of scattering angles, a sophisticated light collecting assembly and analysis algorithms derived from our data base of microwave analogue scattering measurements allow classification of the dust particles according to not only their light-scattering properties, but also according to size, shape (equidimensional, elongated, smooth or angular), composition (dielectric, absorbing, or metallic) and internal structure (compact or porous). The results of tests of the laboratory version of the PAM/IDA are presented.