Spacecraft-environment interaction modelling.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The last several decades have seen a dramatic increase in the deployment of monitoring and science satellites in the world. Our societies depend increasingly on space science and technology for their well being and security. Canada was the third space faring nation in the world, and it remains a leader in many areas of space exploration. Space environment, however, is inhospitable and space weather can have severe consequences on satellites and their components. Some of the effects at play include:i) charging caused by thermal or energetic particle fluxes, and solar radiation, ii) arcing and internal discharges associated with large surface or internal electric fields, iii) heat loads on critical components and iv) aging and modification of material properties, caused by radiation and particle bombardment.Even under normal conditions, the presence of a satellite causes perturbations in the space environment which in turn can lead to aberrations in certain measurements. It is clear, therefore, that space mission planning and optimal interpretation of space borne instruments must rely on a solid understanding of the interaction between satellites and space environment.In this proposal I describe plans to further develop and a use advanced computer models to study the interaction between artificial satellites and space environment. This work builds on many years of experience in the fields of plasma physics, computational methods and space physics. The research will be applied to missions such as Swarm and e-POP in which Canada has a significant contribution. It will also be used, in collaboration with other teams to study international missions. This will ascertain our group's expertise and know-how, and strengthen Canada's position as a leader in space science and technology.