Modeling the interaction between the solar wind and interplanetary dust

After leaving the relatively cool photosphere, solar material experiences a rapid increase in temperature as it travels through the transition region. This rise in temperature is expected to significantly ionize the majority of the material and is enough to fully ionize H and He. After entering the tenuous corona, collisions decrease and ions reach a fixed charge state where they are expected to remain as they propagate through the heliosphere. In the heliosphere, low ionized charge states are uncommon outside of pick up ions and occasional prominence material; however, measurements from ACE/SWICS routinely observe He$^{+}$ throughout solar cycle 23 that are potentially of solar origin. Our work investigates the possible connection of the He$^{+}$ detected in the heliosphere to the interaction between the solar wind and surrounding dust by modeling charge exchange of solar wind alphas with neutral H, and H$_{2}$ from the dust. We use an ionization code that includes impact ionization, and photo-ionization, experienced by the solar wind with an additional term to account for charge exchange with the neutrals to test if dust could be a viable source of solar He$^{+}$ population. This process will be further constrained and tested with the heliospheric imagers on Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter, as well as the Heavy Ion Sensor on Solar Orbiter.