Anthropogenic Space Weather

Anthropogenic effects on the space environment started in the late 19th century and reached their peak in the 1960s when high-altitude nuclear explosions were carried out by the USA and the Soviet Union. These explosions created artificial radiation belts near Earth that resulted in major damages to several satellites. Another, unexpected impact of the high-altitude nuclear tests was the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that can have devastating effects over a large geographic area (as large as the continental United States). Other anthropogenic impacts on the space environment include chemical release ex- periments, high-frequency wave heating of the ionosphere and the interaction of VLF waves with the radiation belts. This paper reviews the fundamental physical process behind these phenomena and discusses the observations of their impacts.Comment: 71 pages, 35 figure

Relevance of Ground-based Electron-Induced Electrostatic Discharge Measurements to Space Plasma Environments

Electron-induced electrostatic discharge (ESD) can lead to severe spacecraft anomalies. It is crucial to the success of space missions that the likelihood of ESD occurrence is understood and mitigated. To aid in predicting ESD occurrence, a model for electric fields above and below the charge layer inside an electronirradiated dielectric material was developed. An instrumentation system was also designed to induce and detect ESD events. Because ESD events with a wide range of maximum current values can occur over a range of time intervals, multiple simultaneous detection methods were employed as charge was accumulated on a sample surface; these included monitoring of sample current and optical emissions from the sample surface. Data from ESD experimentation for James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) materials was used to verify that the instrumentation system was effective in inducing and observing ESD. Two types of discharge events were observed during JWST testing: a sudden-onset, decaying current accompanied by luminescence in the optical data, and an arc or flash in optical data. JWST test results were applied to the electric field models developed to determine the threshold electric field for luminescence onset. The models were also applied to the JWST materials in five different space plasma environments to determine the accumulated electric field as a function of time, and to thereby predict the likelihood of sample luminescence in each location