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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
Along the lines of previous studies on the cometary dust-plasma interaction processes, we evaluate the electromagnetic effect of submicron dust in the coma and in the dust tail. The possible occurence of electrostatic disruption of charged dust in the ion tail is also discussed from theoretical and observational points of view. The relevance of these processes to the formation of striae in the dust tails of several comets is addressed and the conclusion is made that trajectory study of the submicron dust in the striae must take into account the action of the interplanetary electric field.