Читать книгу Space Physics and Aeronomy, Space Weather Effects and Applications - Группа авторов - Страница 15

Space systems on which modern society depends mostly operate in the region from altitudes of a few hundred km to ~40,000 km above Earth’s surface. This region is filled with various populations of energetic particles. The fact that the Earth is surrounded by belts of very energetic protons and electrons was the first major discovery of the space age in 1958 (see Van Allen et al., 1958, 1959). From the initial realization that the terrestrial magnetic field could “trap” high‐energy particles, today there is a much more complete understanding of what are now called the Van Allen radiation belts. There has long been awareness of high‐energy solar and galactic cosmic rays as well.

More or less from the beginning of the space age, it was realized that intense populations of penetrating particles could be quite damaging to electronic systems in space (see Gombosi et al., 2017). There also were concerns about spacecraft structural materials and human space travelers (Van Allen, 1966). Thus, from the earliest days, it was realized that the terrestrial space environs were a problem to be reckoned with when it came to flying robotic and human missions in near‐Earth regions. Today it is recognized that space radiation is one of the most pervasive and concerning threats that constitute what we comprehensively term space weather (Baker & Lanzerotti, 2016).

This chapter is intended to provide a brief overview of space radiation sources and their effects. Related impacts are treated in the companion chapter by Bodeau and Baker (chapter 2, this volume). A second goal of this chapter is to describe from an operational perspective the implications of radiation damage to systems in various parts of the geospace domain. In providing such a brief survey, the goal is to characterize in a succinct way the increasing importance of radiation damage on emerging technological systems.