Spacecraft Charging in Geostationary Transfer Orbit

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Space Weather Monitoring for ISS Geomagnetic Storm Studies

The International Space Station (ISS) space environments community utilizes near real time space weather data to support a variety of ISS engineering and science activities. The team has operated the Floating Potential Measurement Unit (FPMU) suite of plasma instruments (two Langmuir probes, a floating potential probe, and a plasma impedance probe) on ISS since 2006 to obtain in-situ measurements of plasma density and temperature along the ISS orbit and variations in ISS frame potential due to electrostatic current collection from the plasma environment (spacecraft charging) and inductive (vxB) effects from the vehicle motion across the Earth s magnetic field. An ongoing effort is to use FPMU for measuring the ionospheric response to geomagnetic storms at ISS altitudes and investigate auroral charging of the vehicle as it passes through regions of precipitating auroral electrons. This work is challenged by restrictions on FPMU operations that limit observation time to less than about a third of a year. As a result, FPMU campaigns ranging in length from a few days to a few weeks are typically scheduled weeks in advance for ISS engineering and payload science activities. In order to capture geomagnetic storm data under these terms, we monitor near real time space weather data from NASA, NOAA, and ESA sources to determine solar wind disturbance arrival times at Earth likely to be geoeffective (including coronal mass ejections and high speed streams associated with coronal holes) and activate the FPMU ahead of the storm onset. Using this technique we have successfully captured FPMU data during a number of geomagnetic storm periods including periods with ISS auroral charging. This presentation will describe the strategies and challenges in capturing FPMU data during geomagnetic storms, the near real time space weather resources utilized for monitoring the space weather environment, and provide examples of auroral charging data obtained during storm operations

Spacecraft Charging in Geostationary Transfer Orbit

The 700 km x 5.8 Re orbit of the two Van Allen Probes spacecraft provide a unique opportunity to investigate spacecraft charging in geostationary transfer orbits. We use records from the Helium Oxygen Proton Electron (HOPE) plasma spectrometer to identify candidate surface charging events based on the "ion line" charging signature in the ion records. We summarize the energetic particle environment and the conditions necessary for charging to occur in this environment. We discuss the altitude, duration, and magnitude of events observed in the Van Allen Probes from the beginning of the mission to present time. In addition, we explore what information the dual satellites provide on the spatial and temporal variations in the charging environments

Van Allen Probe Charging During the St. Patrick's Day Event

The geomagnetic storms on and around March 17, 2015 marked the largest storms seen in the declining phase of the solar cycle to date. We use the Helium Oxygen Proton Electron (HOPE) mass spectrometer on board the Van Allen Probe - A and B satellites to study in detail the charging effects seen on these spacecraft during this time. Ion particle flux data provides information on the magnitude of the charging events using the ion line charging signature due to low energy ions accelerated by the spacecraft potential. Electron flux observations are used to correlate the charging environment with variations in spacecraft potential through the event. We also investigate the density and temperature of ions and electrons during the time of the charging event

The Advanced Composition Explorer Shock Database and Application to Particle Acceleration Theory

The theory of particle acceleration via diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) has been studied in depth by Gosling et al. (1981), van Nes et al. (1984), Mason (2000), Desai et al. (2003), Zank et al. (2006), among many others. Recently, Parker and Zank (2012, 2014) and Parker et al. (2014) using the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) shock database at 1 AU explored two questions: does the upstream distribution alone have enough particles to account for the accelerated downstream distribution and can the slope of the downstream accelerated spectrum be explained using DSA? As was shown in this research, diffusive shock acceleration can account for a large population of the shocks. However, Parker and Zank (2012, 2014) and Parker et al. (2014) used a subset of the larger ACE database. Recently, work has successfully been completed that allows for the entire ACE database to be considered in a larger statistical analysis. We explain DSA as it applies to single and multiple shocks and the shock criteria used in this statistical analysis. We calculate the expected injection energy via diffusive shock acceleration given upstream parameters defined from the ACE Solar Wind Electron, Proton, and Alpha Monitor (SWEPAM) data to construct the theoretical upstream distribution. We show the comparison of shock strength derived from diffusive shock acceleration theory to observations in the 50 keV to 5 MeV range from an instrument on ACE. Parameters such as shock velocity, shock obliquity, particle number, and time between shocks are considered. This study is further divided into single and multiple shock categories, with an additional emphasis on forward-forward multiple shock pairs. Finally with regard to forwardforward shock pairs, results comparing injection energies of the first shock, second shock, and second shock with previous energetic population will be given

The Advanced Composition Explorer Shock Database and Application to Particle Acceleration Theory

The theory of particle acceleration via diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) has been studied in depth by Gosling et al. (1981), van Nes et al. (1984), Mason (2000), Desai et al. (2003), Zank et al. (2006), among many others. Recently, Parker and Zank (2012, 2014) and Parker et al. (2014) using the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) shock database at 1 AU explored two questions: does the upstream distribution alone have enough particles to account for the accelerated downstream distribution and can the slope of the downstream accelerated spectrum be explained using DSA? As was shown in this research, diffusive shock acceleration can account for a large population of the shocks. However, Parker and Zank (2012, 2014) and Parker et al. (2014) used a subset of the larger ACE database. Recently, work has successfully been completed that allows for the entire ACE database to be considered in a larger statistical analysis. We explain DSA as it applies to single and multiple shocks and the shock criteria used in this statistical analysis. We calculate the expected injection energy via diffusive shock acceleration given upstream parameters defined from the ACE Solar Wind Electron, Proton, and Alpha Monitor (SWEPAM) data to construct the theoretical upstream distribution. We show the comparison of shock strength derived from diffusive shock acceleration theory to observations in the 50 keV to 5 MeV range from an instrument on ACE. Parameters such as shock velocity, shock obliquity, particle number, and time between shocks are considered. This study is further divided into single and multiple shock categories, with an additional emphasis on forward-forward multiple shock pairs. Finally with regard to forward-forward shock pairs, results comparing injection energies of the first shock, second shock, and second shock with previous energetic population will be given

Survey of DMSP Charging Events During the Period Preceding Cycle 23 Solar Maximum

It has been well established that POLAR orbiting satellites can see mild to severe charging levels during solar minimum conditions (Frooninckx and Sojka, 1992, Anderson and Koons, 1996, Anderson, 2012). However, spacecraft operations during solar maximum cannot be considered safe from auroral charging. Recently, we have seen examples of high level charging during the recent approach to solar maximum. We present here a survey of charging events seen by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites (F16, F17) during the solstices of 2011 and 2012. In this survey, we summarize the condition necessary for charging to occur in this environment, we describe how the lower than normal maximum conditions are conducive to the environment conditions necessary for charging in the POLAR orbit, and we show examples of the more extreme charging events, sometimes exceeding 1 kV, during this time period. We also show examples of other interesting phenomenological events seen in the DMSP data, but which are not considered surface charging events, and discuss the differences

iSat Surface Charging and Thruster Plume Interactions Analysis

NASA is designing the Iodine Satellite (iSAT) cubesat mission to demonstrate operations of an iodine electric thruster system. The spacecraft will be deployed as a secondary payload from a launch vehicle which has not yet been identified so the program must plan for the worst case environments over a range of orbital inclinations. We present results from a NASA and Air Force Charging Analyzer Program (NASCAP-2K) surface charging calculation used to evaluate the effects of charging on the spacecraft and to provide the charging levels at other locations in orbit for a thruster plume interaction analysis for the iSAT mission. We will then discuss results from the thruster interactions analysis using the Electric Propulsion Interactions Code (EPIC). The results of these analyses are being used by the iSAT program for a range of environments that could be encountered when the final mission orbit is selected

iSat Surface Charging and Thruster Plume Interactions Analysis

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Space Weather Guest Lecture

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