Feasibility of space based observations of the Kordylewski clouds

This paper-is concerned with the feasibility of space-based (in-situ) observation of the Kordylewski clouds (Kordylewski, 1967), otherwise known as dust clouds of the 1.4 and Ls Lagrange points of the Earth-Moon system Assuming an observed intensity of 20.5 mag arcsec(-2) (Simpson 1967) the number density of dust sized particles, at the Lq and Ls points, is calculated to be enhanced;by up 6.0 x 10(5) over and above the background dust-concentration at 1 AU (Grun et. al 1985)., On the other hand some observers failed to find any glow above the sky background down to 26.6 mag arcsec(-2) (Schlosser et. al 1975); this indicates a dust concentration enhancement of less than 1.3 x 10(3). These results and others suggest a possible time varying dust population at L-4 and L-5. One of the most contentious issues remains the validity of instantaneous measurements of dust at these regions from ground observations. In-situ dust detection missions, which might be able to give us a better measure of the instantaneous dust population, are discussed.