Dependence of spacecraft anomalies at different orbits on energetic electron and proton fluxes

In this study we investigate 195 spacecraft anomalies from 1998 to 2010 from Satellite News Digest (SND). We classify these data according to types of anomaly : Control, Power, Telemetry etc. We examine the association between these anomaly data and daily peak particle (electron and proton) flux data from GOES as well as their occurrence rates. To determine the association, we use two criteria that electron criterion is >10,000 pfu and proton criterion is >100 pfu. Main results from this study are as flows. First, the number of days satisfying the criteria for electron flux has a peak near a week before the anomaly day and decreases from the peak day to the anomaly day, while that for proton flux has a peak near the anomaly day. Second, we found a similar pattern for the mean daily peak particle (electron and proton) flux as a function of day before the anomaly day. Third, an examination of multiple spacecraft anomaly events, which are likely to occur by severe space weather effects, shows that anomalies mostly occur either when electron fluxes are in the declining stage, or when daily proton peak fluxes are strongly enhanced. This result is very consistent with the above statistical studies. Our results will be discussed in view of the origins of spacecraft anomaly.