Space Environment Information System for Mission Control Purposes - a Decision Support System based on an architecture for space weather services

摘要

The radiation environment encountered in space by satellites is extremely variable and depends mainly on the satellite position and space weather. Although models for the concerned processes are available, most of them only represent the average conditions and neglect the dynamics of the system. Accurate prediction of the radiation environment remains an unsolved problem Space weather can cause manifold problems to spacecraft (S/C) components, such as degradation of sensors and solar arrays and changes in on-board memories by Single Event Upsets (SEU) The final effect is a degradation of the S/C overall performance and in extreme cases complete unavailability of services. When certain alarm conditions are reached, risk avoidance procedures may be invoked, e g switching off high voltages/biases/filters etc, and transition to protected operating modes. Once the detectors are off, there is just a rough estimation of when the conditions are safe again. Better prediction of radiation conditions and more accurate information could greatly improve these operations. Therefore it is necessary to monitor1 and predict the space weather effects and improve the space weather services.