Severe Geostationary Environments: Numerical Estimation of Spacecraft Surface Charging from Flight Data

Abstract

This paper defines a series of severe plasma environments in terms of spacecraft surface charging in geostationary orbit. In-flight plasma measurements are used to extract environments associated with large absolute spacecraft potentials and fluxes. An exhaustive list of events is selected over 15 years of Los Alamos National Laboratory data between the 1990s and 2000s. Electron spectra are compared to the literature and guidelines, especially the strong event measured by the Spacecraft Charging at High Altitude satellite in 1979. The impact on a telecommunications spacecraft of such charging environments is simulated numerically with the Spacecraft Plasma Interaction Software. The correlation between the model results and the instrument data indicates that the numerical approach is reliable for estimating charging risks in operational conditions. Measured environments are ranked on their susceptibility to generate significant charging and electrostatic discharge risks.