A review on radiation environment pathways to impacts: Radiation effects, relevant empirical environment models, and future needs

Abstract

Space radiation affects every aspect of spacecraft design and operation. As a part of the ISWAT (International Space Weather Actions Teams, https://iswat-cospar.org/) effort, this paper provides a comprehensive review of space radiation environment models that are commonly used by the spacecraft design community to estimate radiation effects on systems/components. The types of radiation effects discussed in this paper are total dose (both for ionizing and for non-ionizing), single event effects (SEE), surface and internal charging, and radiation effects at aviation altitudes. For each effect, a brief overview of the effect is described, relevant environment models are discussed, and the currently understood gaps and future needs are summarized. This paper serves as the radiation environment pathway-to-impact paper in the overall ISWAT Roadmap development.