Florian Nichitiu, James R. Drumond, Jiansheng Zou, Robert Deschamault(*) Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Canada (*) COM DEV, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Florian Nichitiu June 2003, CAP South Atlantic Anomaly seen by MOPITT
Radiation effect on spacecraft systems and instruments Spacecraft anomalies: from easily recovered to total mission failure origin: -- engineering (operation fault, mechanism failure and ageing) -- space weather which simulate engineering faults— BUT not only Based upon the effect upon the s/c : Surface charging | Photonics noise Deep dielectric charging | Total dose effects Single Event Upset (SEU) | Material degradation Solar radio frequency interference | Spacecraft drag
Electrons AE-8Protons AP-8 Radiation Belt Models and South Atlantic Anomaly at 500Km altitude
Mopitt instrument Two piezoelectric accelerometers Cooler Compressor (vibrations for x,y,z) Cooler Displacer (vibrations for x,y,z) Multi-component force measurements Kistler: K-Shear accelerometer. Sensing element: quartz crystal
Mopitt Accelerometer anomalies
Mopitt Accelerometer Anomalies Daily rate = 1.06 ev/day SAA events = 54 % Poles ( +/- 70 ) = 19.4 %; North/South asymmetry=0.43
Mopitt Accelerometer Anomalies in South Atlantic Anomaly region Total time: 993 days; Total Nr ev over SAA=567 ( 54%) SAA rate= 0.57 ev/day Mopitt spend 6.25% of time over SAA SAA rate=9.14 ev/day
SAA seen by Mopitt
Solar Protons Events Detected by Mopitt accelerometer
Solar Proton Events Max p Flux > 10 MeV 100 MeV Y1 Jul 14/15: Y2 Nov 09: N1 Sept 25: Y3 Nov 06: N2 Nov 24: Solar Proton Events ( from ftp://ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov/, ftp://ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov/ Mopitt Accelerometer detect SPE at 6 Nov (during the second peak of proton flux)
SPE detected by Mopitt. Energy dependence
Mopitt Accelerometer Anomalies during intense SPE - are caused by high energy charged particles precipitating via ‘pole horns’. - more events during the Day
Double Solar Maximum
During High Solar Activity period ( II sub-max) the relative contribution of trapped particles in SAA decrease from 54% to 42% as a consequence of direct injection of more high energy particles
Correlation with Solar activity Mopitt Accelerometer anomalies are correlated with Solar Activity as shown by Solar Radio Flux : index F days average and smooth 27-average
Summary and conclusions Analysis of Mopitt accelerometer anomalies anomalies are located in the SAA and polar regions anomalies are caused by the radiation environment (energetic particles). detection of SPE the energetic particles are mainly high energy protons (30-50 MeV). Piezoelectric (SiO2) accelerometer a possible new effect: piezoelectricity induced by corpuscular radiation. decrease of relative SAA contribution during High Solar Activity (second max) injection of more high energy particles (via poles) during Solar Activity second sub-max ( Solar Cycle 23). direct correlation with Solar Activity as expressed by Solar Radio Flux (F107) the Solar Radio Flux at 10.7 cm is a more complex proxy for Solar Activity.