HR: 1330h
AN: SM42C-0628    [PDF]
TI: Critical Temperature for the Onset of Spacecraft Charging, An Update
AU: * Lai, S T
EM: Shu.Lai@hanscom.af.mil
AF: Space Vehicles Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory 29 Randolph Road, Hanscom AFB., MA 01731 United States
AB: The onset of spacecraft charging at geosynchronous altitudes occurs at a critical value of the space plasma electron temperature for a given spacecraft surface. We review the theoretical formulation and computational results and compare the results with the Los Alamos National Laboratory spacecraft charging obervations. It is amazing that the observational data show that the onset of charging occurs at a critical temperature in almost every charging event, no matter which satellite, which year and which month. It is equally amazing that the theoretical critical temperature values remain the same no matter in Maxwellian plasma or in kappa plasma, in eclipse or even in sunlight. We also offer a full theoretical formulation of critical temperature in cut-off Maxweliian distributions and a good reason why spacecraft charging seldom occurs in the dusk sector.
DE: 7800 SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS
DE: 7853 Spacecraft/atmosphere interactions
DE: 7855 Spacecraft sheaths, wakes, charging
DE: 7899 General or miscellaneous
SC: SPA - Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting