Space weather conditions lead to major glitches in satellite relays and scientists say that with a demand for higher speed and improved technologies in streaming, there is a need to look at how space climate and radiations affect the satellites.
It is not usual for the Sun to fire solar flares and coronal mass ejections in space causing extreme solar storms and other space weather events. The solar storms are responsible for directing highly energized particles toward the Earth, which in turn cause disruptions in satellite relay of TV and Internet purposes.
Geostationary satellites orbit at the same speed as Earth to maintain their location in relation to the planet. In order to understand high-speed disturbance in space, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted a study to examine space weather conditions.
Researchers found that most of the satellite problems that took place between 1996 and 2012 were caused when high-speed energized particles overlapped the satellites' orbit during the declining phases of the solar cycle.
"If we can understand how the environment affects these satellites, and we can design to improve the satellites to be more tolerant, then it would be very beneficial not just in cost, but also in efficiency," said Whitney Lohmeyer, a graduate student in MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics in a press statement. "Users are starting to demand more capabilities. They want to start video-streaming data, they want to communicate faster with higher data rates. So design is changing - along with susceptibilities to space weather and radiation that didn't used to exist, but are now becoming a problem."
Electronics on these satellites are covered with layers of protective shielding. However, this shield gets worn-out by radiation over time, degrading its components and performance. Researchers speculate that this electronic flux accumulates and reaches a point where it damages the amplifiers inside the orbiting satellites.
"Once you get into a 15-year mission, you may run out of redundant amplifiers," Lohmeyer, said. "If a company has invested over $200 million in a satellite, they need to be able to assure that it works for that period of time. We really need to improve our method of quantifying and understanding the space environment, so we can better improve design."
Researchers revealed that many satellites fall prey to solar storms because these storms are more vibrant than what these satellites are subjected to while building. These highly energized particles create havoc for satellites cause malfunctions, which are almost impossible to fix.
Researchers often consider geomagnetic disturbances when measuring the susceptibility of the spacecraft to space weather, according to a statement from MIT. However, most of the amplifier failures happened during times of low geomagnetic activity that would usually be regarded safe, Lohmeyer said. Therefore, these assumptions should be reconsidered to avoid future satellite glitches.
