Cosmic Dust Catalog Volume 21,1
Introduction
Since May 1981, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has used aircraft to collect cosmic dust (CD) particles from Earth's stratosphere. Specially designed dust collectors are prepared for flight and processed after flight in an ultraclean (Class-100) laboratory constructed for this purpose at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas. Particles are individually retrieved from the collectors, examined and cataloged, and then made available to the scientific community for research. Cosmic dust thereby joins lunar samples and meteorites as an additional source of extraterrestrial materials for scientific study.
This catalog summarizes preliminary observations on particles retrieved from collection surfaces L2098, L2099, L2100, L2101, L2103, and L2105. These surfaces were flat plate collectors which were coated with silicone oil (dimethyl siloxane) and then flown aboard NASA ER-2 aircraft during a series of flights as follows:
| L2098, L2099, L2100 & L2101 | Unspecified flight time during June 2015 over Southern California, S.F. Bay Area and Central California out over the Pacific Ocean |
|---|---|
| L2103 & L2105 | 60 hours of flight time during September 2016 for the Oracles ER-2 mission over Namibia, Africa |
All of the collectors were installed in specially constructed wing pylons which ensured that the necessary level of cleanliness was maintained between periods of active sampling. During successive periods of high altitude (20 km) cruise, the collectors were exposed in the stratosphere by barometric controls and then retracted into sealed storage containers prior to descent.