Open AccessAnalysis of GEO spacecraft anomalies: Space weather relationships
Author(s) -
Choi HoSung,
Lee Jaejin,
Cho KyungSuk,
Kwak YoungSil,
Cho IlHyun,
Park YoungDeuk,
Kim YeonHan,
Baker Daniel N.,
Reeves Geoffrey D.,
Lee DongKyu
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
space weather
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.254
H-Index - 56
ISSN - 1542-7390
DOI - 10.1029/2010sw000597
Subject(s) - spacecraft , space weather , satellite , anomaly (physics) , geostationary orbit , space environment , meteorology , spacecraft charging , environmental science , defense meteorological satellite program , earth's magnetic field , geology , physics , geophysics , astronomy , quantum mechanics , magnetic field , condensed matter physics
While numerous anomalies and failures of spacecraft have been reported since the beginning of the space age, space weather effects on modern spacecraft systems have been emphasized more and more with the increase of their complexity and capability. However, the relationship between space weather and commercial satellite anomalies has not been studied extensively. In this paper, we investigate the geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) satellite anomalies archived by Satellite News Digest during 1997–2009 in order to search for possible influences of space weather on the anomaly occurrences. We analyze spacecraft anomalies for the Kp index, local time, and season and then compare them with the tendencies of charged particles observed by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) satellites. We obtain the following results: (1) there are good relationships between geomagnetic activity (as measured by the Kp index) and anomaly occurrences of the GEO satellites; (2) the satellite anomalies occurred mainly in the midnight to morning sector; and (3) the anomalies are found more frequently in spring and fall than summer and winter. While we cannot fully explain how space weather is involved in producing such anomalies, our analysis of LANL data shows that low‐energy (<100 keV) electrons have similar behaviors with spacecraft anomalies and implies the spacecraft charging might dominantly contribute to the GEO spacecraft anomalies reported in Satellite News Digest.