A New Tool for Monitoring Solar Energetic Particle Impacts to Satellite Operations

The number of satellites orbiting Earth is growing rapidly as society becomes increasingly dependent on this infrastructure for critical services such as internet and detailed imaging. Most of these new satellites are expected to operate in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) or Medium Earth Orbit (MEO). Even in these low orbits, satellites are still vulnerable to impacts from Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs). SEPs are a highly sporadic component of the space radiation environment comprised of extremely energetic protons and heavy ions. They are produced in shock fronts that steepen ahead of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) released from the sun. Once they reach Earth, these high energy ions can easily pass through outer satellite shielding and damage electronic components, resulting in temporary malfunctions, degraded performance, or a complete system/mission loss. Every effort is made to design satellites that will tolerate these sometimes infrequent yet very intense events but unexpected issues may still occur. Many of the LEO/MEO satellite mega-constellations were launched after the most recent large SEP event in 2017. Their on-orbit response to SEPs is untested. When issues occur, it is necessary to understand and diagnose the cause so that appropriate actions can be taken to safeguard the asset and return to normal operations. Conclusively diagnosing whether an observed satellite anomaly in LEO/MEO orbit is related to an SEP event is currently challenging because there are no easily available models and tools for defining where these energetic protons have access near Earth. Some of the ions are deflected by Earth's magnetic field creating partially shielded regions. Here we discuss our progress toward developing the Solar Particle Access Model (SPAM). The model describes solar particle access near Earth by mapping measurements from low altitude POES/MetOp satellites throughout the magnetosphere and will be made available through an online application to easily deliver actionable information to users.