Identification of an unexpected space radiation hazard

A solar cycle of spacecraft anomalies due to internal charging

“…The ESD sensitivity of the affected circuitry was obviously not a design feature. It appears to have originated during the "unique and truly amazing" event (Blake et al, 1992) in March 1991, but it has yielded a rare demonstration of environmental cause and engineering effect.…”

Radiation-belt and transient solar-magnetospheric effects on Hipparcos radiation background

“…Also apparent is the dramatic fall in rate as perigee approaches, presumably due to geomagnetic shielding. This event also generated strong electron and proton drift echoes at around 3:42 UT on March 24 [9]. Unfortunately the Star Mapper data for around this period are missing due to ground-station nonavailability.…”

“…These GOES data show the onset of the well-known solar proton event (SPE) on March 23 1991 [7,8]. The subsequent solar wind shock on March 24 resulted in the creation of an additional radiation belt [9]. The SPE is clear in the dramatically enhanced Hipparcos background signal rate.…”

Chronology of ‘killer’ electrons: Solar cycles 22 and 23

“…It occurred just 125 1 2 h after the start of a massive solar proton event (SPE) that Blake et al (1992) termed a unique and truly amazing event; however, the large proton fluence turned out to be an associated effect rather than the cause. The following rise in the fluence of energetic electrons and subsequent internal electrostatic discharge (IESD) was shown to explain the problem (Wrenn, 1995) but the understanding of such an outer belt enhancement (OBE) has involved finding links with interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) and coronal holes, via high-speed solar wind streams (HSSs), corotating interaction regions (CIRs), the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) and geomagnetic storms (Iles et al, 2002;Kataoka and Miyoshi, 2006;Kim et al, 2006;Miyoshi et al, 2007;Miyoshi and Kataoka, 2008a).…”