Developing In Situ Space Weather Monitoring Sensors for Small Satellites
Abstract
The spacecraft operations community, whether civilian or DOD, often disregard potential impacts by space weather until the mission is already compromised. Those that are aware of the hazards of space weather currently incorporate space weather forecasting into their operations typically by consulting forecasts by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC). The actual impacts to spacecraft are often only identified as a probable cause after an anomaly or hardware failure has already occurred. The development of an onboard space weather monitoring suite to actively identify and respond to incoming space weather hazards could change this. Using onboard sensors to actively monitor and now-cast incoming solar energetic particles (SEPs), solar wind electrons, and-or coronal mass ejections (CMEs) would enable a validation of prior space weather forecasting, which is both specific and timely to the spacecraft affected, or could be used to trigger an autonomous onboard response intending to mitigate the impact to the spacecraft. The ability to actively validate space weather forecasting in congested space environments, such as in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) or geostationary orbit (GEO), would enable validation of predictions of incoming space weather events, such as SEPs, or modeled environmental changes during geomagnetic storms, which would in turn create a feedback loop for improving said forecasting and modeling efforts. Doing this with a constellation of spacecraft would enable study of the regional spatial variation of these events and their impacts to the space environment. Proactive monitoring of in situ space weather at a spacecraft will enable future development of onboard autonomous decision-making capabilities. Such a capabilities will enable proactive space weather mitigation efforts without a human-in-the-loop, which is especially necessary in communications-limited domains or when the environment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 06, 2024
- Source ID
- FA95502310522
Entities
People
- Alicia Petersen
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force
- University of Florida