A model for the altitude dependence of the hot plasma parameters responsible for the electrostatic charging of spacecraft was developed. Based upon plasma orbit theory, the directed velocity is a function of the ambient magnetic field flux density. A consequence of this approach is that while the thermal velocity distributions (assumed to be Maxwellian) of the plasma particles are independent of the magnetic field strength (and hence altitude), the particle densities increase with magnetic field strength. Thus, according to this model, while the equilibrium voltage is independent of altitude, the charging current density increases with decreasing altitude. However, the probability of such spacecraft charging decreases with decreasing altitude.
An altitude-dependent spacecraft charging model
1977-02-24
Conference paper
No indication
English
Spacecraft charging probabilities as a function of altitude
Tema Archive | 1978
|Spacecraft Charging Anomaly on a Low-Altitude Satellite in an Aurora
Online Contents | 1996
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