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• Total ionizing dose for 14-h, 15-h, 16-h highly elliptical orbits is reassessed. • It can be significantly reduced for 15-h and 16-h orbits by tuning orbit shape. • Originally proposed 14-h orbit is already at the minimum. • Shielding thickness can be reduced by factor 1.24–1.28 for 15-h and 16-h orbits. • Mission lifetime may increase by up to 8.1 years. The study reports results of analysis related to minimization of the total ionizing dose (TID) for the Multiple Apogee Highly Elliptical Orbit with periods 14 h, 15 h and 16 h introduced earlier for continuous observation of the Earth's polar regions. The modeling of space environment has been conducted with use of the European Space Agency's SPENVIS tool based on the AE8/AP8 radiation models. Originally, the set of orbital parameters has been derived through the optimization process that included among other factors criteria for the apogee height limit and minimization of the radiation dose caused by trapped protons. By relaxing the apogee altitude limit, this study found the total ionizing dose TID can be significantly reduced for 15-h and 16-h orbits, while the originally proposed 14-h orbit is already at the minimum of radiation dose. For 15-h and 16-h orbits this converts into reduction of the thickness of aluminum shielding by factor 1.24–1.28 or an equivalent increase in the mission lifetime by up to 8.1 years. For example, an increase in apogee altitude to 49,620 km for 16-h orbit (eccentricity e = 0.74) in comparison to the originally proposed 16-h orbit (altitude equal to 43,500 km, e = 0.55) reduces the TID so that the shielding thickness decreases to 3.53 mm, instead of 4.35 mm of aluminum slab for the same 15-year duration of mission. Decrease of the TID is achieved due to significant reduction of ionizing radiation from the trapped electrons through the better placing of the orbit trajectory in the slot area, but at the expense of slight increase of ionizing radiation from the trapped protons and increase in apogee altitude to 46,640 km and 49,620 km for 15-h and 16-h orbit, correspondingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper the task of the operative monitoring of radiation conditions in the near-Earth space is considered as a part of a project Universat-SOCRAT of the system of small satellites, which is being developed at Moscow State University. The scientific approach to the realization of this task is determined. The choice of the satellite orbits and spatial orientation and the configuration of energetic charged particle detectors is validated taking into account other tasks performed by the projected satellite system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we review recent spacecraft observations of oblique whistler-mode waves in the Earth's inner magnetosphere as well as the various consequences of the presence of such waves for electron scattering and acceleration. In particular, we survey the statistics of occurrences and intensity of oblique chorus waves in the region of the outer radiation belt, comprised between the plasmapause and geostationary orbit, and discuss how their actual distribution may be explained by a combination of linear and non-linear generation, propagation, and damping processes. We further examine how such oblique wave populations can be included into both quasi-linear diffusion models and fully nonlinear models of wave-particle interaction. On this basis, we demonstrate that varying amounts of oblique waves can significantly change the rates of particle scattering, acceleration, and precipitation into the atmosphere during quiet times as well as in the course of a storm. Finally, we discuss possible generation mechanisms for such oblique waves in the radiation belts. We demonstrate that oblique whistler-mode chorus waves can be considered as an important ingredient of the radiation belt system and can play a key role in many aspects of wave-particle resonant interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ionizing radiation environment was analyzed for a variety of potential Highly Elliptical Orbits (HEOs) with orbital periods ranging from 6 h to 24 h suitable to continuously monitor the Arctic region. Several models available from the ESA Space Environment Information System (SPENVIS) online tool were employed, including the new-generation AE9/AP9 model for trapped radiation. Results showed that the Total Ionizing Dose (TID) has a well-pronounced local minimum for the 14-h orbit, which is nearly identical to the overall minimum observed for the longest orbital period (24 h). The thickness of slab aluminum shielding required to keep the annual TID below 10, 5 and 3.33 krad (i.e. 150, 75 and 50 krad for 15 years of mission duration) for a 14-h orbit is 2.1, 2.7 and 3.1 mm respectively. The 16-h orbit requires an additional 0.5 mm of aluminum to achieve the same results, while the 24-h orbit requires less shielding in the order of 0.2–0.3 mm. Comparison between the AE8/AP8 and AE9/AP9 models was conducted for all selected orbits. Results demonstrated that differences ranged from −70% to +170% depending on orbit geometry. The vulnerability to the Single Event Effect (SEE) was compared for all orbits by modeling the Linear Energy Transfer (LET) for long-term conditions and for the 5 min “worst case” scenario. The analysis showed no preference among orbits with periods longer than 15 h, and in order to keep the 14-h orbit at the same level, the shielding should be increased by ∼33% or approximately by 1 mm. To keep the Single Event Upset (SEU) rate produced by the “worst case” event at the same order of magnitude as for the “statistical” long-term case, the thickness of aluminum should be as high as 22 mm. The overall conclusion from a space environment point of view is that all HEO orbits with periods equal to or longer than 14 h can be regarded as good candidates for operational missions. Therefore, selection of orbit should be based on other criteria, for example, uniformity of spatial coverage for meteorological imaging or the configuration of the ground network for data reception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The space radiation is a very important component of the space weather and affects both the space crew and electronic devices in space flights. The Bulgarian scientists together with number of international partners for more than 20 years conduct research of the ionizing radiation distribution from the Earth surface to the Moon orbit. In this paper we present some results for space radiation doses observed during number of experiments on the Mir manned space station, International Space Station, on unmanned satellites Foton-M2, Foton-M3 around the Earth and on Chandrayan-1 satellite around the Moon. Discussed is the contribution of the galactic cosmic rays and trapped radiation to the particle fluxes and absorbed doses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the data measured by energetic particle detector on board CBERS-01 and -02 for the past five years, statistics was made to show the general features of MeV electrons and protons along a solar synchronous orbit at an altitude of 780 km. This height is in the bottom region of the Earth's radiation belts. Detectors are inside the satellite cabinet and such continuous monitoring of particle radiation environment inside a satellite has seldom conducted so far. After a proper and careful treatment, it is indicated that the data inside satellite are well correlated with the radiation environment outside. Besides the agreement of the general distribution characteristics of energetic electrons and protons with similar observations from other satellites, attention is particularly paid to the disturbed conditions. Variations of particle fluxes are closely related with solar proton events, in general, electron fluxes of outer belt are well correlated with Dst index after three days' delay while the electron injection occurred almost at the same day during great magnetic storms. It is confirmed that both energetic electrons and protons appear in the Polar Cap region only after the solar proton events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]