Spacecraft surface charging within geosynchronous orbit observed by the Van Allen Probes

Sarno-Smith, L. K.; Larsen, B.; Skoug, R. M.; Liemohn, Michael W.; Breneman, A. W.; Wygant, J. R.; Thomsen, M. F.

doi:10.1002/2015sw001345

Cited by 52 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Photoemission makes fully conductive spacecraft charge to a few volts positive, which is enough to attract back photoelectrons of a few eV and reach current balance. Some surprising exceptions have nevertheless been reported by Sarno‐Smith et al () when the fully conductive Van Allen Probes spacecraft charged down to a few hundreds of volts negative in sunlight. Frame potential (relative to the ambient plasma environment) is an important parameter in the assessment of charging risks but the most important parameter is differential charging of surface materials, as e.g., insulating coverings, relative to the structure or frame.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Spacecraft surface charging induced by severe environments at geosynchronous orbit

et al. 2018

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Severe and extreme surface charging on geosynchronous spacecraft is examined through the analysis of 16 years of data from particles detectors on‐board the Los Alamos National Laboratory spacecraft. Analysis shows that high spacecraft frame potentials are correlated with 10 to 50 keV electron fluxes, especially when these fluxes exceed 1 × 108 cm−2 s−1 sr−1. Four criteria have been used to select severe environments: 1) large flux of electrons with energies above 10 keV, 2) large fluxes of electrons with energies below 50 keV and above 200 keV, 3) large flux of electrons with energies below 50 keV and low flux with energies above 200 keV, and 4) long periods of time with a spacecraft potential below ‐ 5 kV. They occur preferentially during either geomagnetic storms or intense isolated substorms, during the declining phase of the solar cycle, during equinox seasons and close to midnight local time. The set of anomalies reported in Choi et al. (2011) is concomitant with a new database constructed from these events. The worst‐case environments exceed the spacecraft design guidelines by up to a factor of 10 for energies below 10 keV. They are fitted with triple Maxwellian distributions in order to facilitate their use by spacecraft designers as alternative conditions for the assessment of worst‐case surface charging.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Spacecraft surface charging induced by severe environments at geosynchronous orbit

et al. 2018

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“…High‐energy electrons, typically above 1 MeV, can cause deep dielectric charging, which can irrevocably damage the electronic components onboard the satellite (Baker et al, ; Gubby & Evans, ; Lohmeyer & Cahoy, ; Lohmeyer et al, ; Wrenn et al, ). The 1‐ to 100‐keV energy electrons can also be problematic to satellite operators, as they can contribute to surface charging, particularly at ∼10 keV, which interferes with the satellite electronic systems (Ferguson, ; Mullen et al, ; Olsen, ; O'Brien & Lemon, ; Sarno‐Smith et al, ; Thomsen et al, ). This can potentially turn off vital systems onboard the spacecraft, which may be the cause of the anomaly on the Galaxy 15 spacecraft when it stopped responding to any ground commands (Loto'aniu et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The System Science Development of Local Time‐Dependent 40‐keV Electron Flux Models for Geostationary Orbit

et al. 2019

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At geosynchronous Earth orbit, the radiation belt/ring current electron fluxes with energies up to several hundred kiloelectron volts can vary widely in magnetic local time (MLT). This study aims to develop Nonlinear AutoRegressive eXogenous models using system science techniques, which account for the spatial variation in MLT. This is difficult for system science techniques, since there is sparse data availability of the electron fluxes at different MLT. To solve this problem, the data are binned from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) 13, 14, and 15 by MLT, and a separate Nonlinear AutoRegressive eXogenous model is deduced for each bin using solar wind variables as the inputs to the model. These models are then conjugated into one spatiotemporal forecast. The model performance statistics for each model varies in MLT with a prediction efficiency between 47% and 75% and a correlation coefficient between 51.3% and 78.9% for the period from 1 March 2013 to 31 December 2017.

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“…Spacecraft potential measurements are provided by the Electric Field and Waves (EFW) instrument [ Wygant et al , ]. Studies of the charging of Van Allen Probes in the plasmasphere have showed that the spacecraft potential can exceed the low‐energy threshold of HOPE (1 eV) or upward of 100% of the nominal low‐energy threshold of HOPE [ Goldstein et al , ; Sarno‐Smith et al , , ]. Even nominally, the low‐energy threshold of HOPE is greater than the bulk kinetic and thermal energies of the plasmasphere.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temperature of the plasmasphere from Van Allen Probes HOPE

et al. 2017

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We introduce two novel techniques for estimating temperatures of very low energy space plasmas using, primarily, in situ data from an electrostatic analyzer mounted on a charged and moving spacecraft. The techniques are used to estimate proton temperatures during intervals where the bulk of the ion plasma is well below the energy bandpass of the analyzer. Both techniques assume that the plasma may be described by a one‐dimensional trueE→×trueB→ drifting Maxwellian and that the potential field and motion of the spacecraft may be accounted for in the simplest possible manner, i.e., by a linear shift of coordinates. The first technique involves the application of a constrained theoretical fit to a measured distribution function. The second technique involves the comparison of total and partial‐energy number densities. Both techniques are applied to Van Allen Probes Helium, Oxygen, Proton, and Electron (HOPE) observations of the proton component of the plasmasphere during two orbits on 15 January 2013. We find that the temperatures calculated from these two order‐of‐magnitude‐type techniques are in good agreement with typical ranges of the plasmaspheric temperature calculated using retarding potential analyzer‐based measurements—generally between 0.2 and 2 eV (2000–20,000 K). We also find that the temperature is correlated with L shell and hot plasma density and is negatively correlated with the cold plasma density. We posit that the latter of these three relationships may be indicative of collisional or wave‐driven heating of the plasmasphere in the ring current overlap region. We note that these techniques may be easily applied to similar data sets or used for a variety of purposes.

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Spacecraft surface charging within geosynchronous orbit observed by the Van Allen Probes

Cited by 52 publications

References 33 publications

Spacecraft surface charging induced by severe environments at geosynchronous orbit

Spacecraft surface charging induced by severe environments at geosynchronous orbit

The System Science Development of Local Time‐Dependent 40‐keV Electron Flux Models for Geostationary Orbit

Temperature of the plasmasphere from Van Allen Probes HOPE

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