On spatial distribution of proton radiation belt from solar cell degradation of Akebono satellite

Solar cells on any satellite degrade gradually due to severe space radiation environment. We found a fair correlation between the decrease rate of solar cell output current of Akebono satellite orbiting in the inner magnetosphere and trapped proton flux from AP8 model between 1989 and 1992. After 1993, presumably as a result of long-term degradation, variation of solar cell output seems more susceptible to other causes such as high temperature effect, and simple monthly averaged data show no significant relation between them. One of possible causes for the temperature variation of the solar cells is terrestrial heat radiation with changing orientation of solar cell panels towards the earth and another is solar radiation varied with eccentric earth's orbit around the sun. In order to remove the possible temperature effect, we sort the data expected to be least affected by the terrestrial heat radiation from the orbit conditions, and also analyze difference of the output current for a month from that for the same month in the previous year. The analysis method leads us to successfully track a continuous correlation between the decease rate of solar cell output and energetic trapped proton flux up to 1996. We also discuss the best-fitted spatial distribution of energetic protons from comparison with model calculations.