Welcome to the Spacecraft Design - Space Weather in the Solar System service

The service "Spacecraft Design - Space Weather in the Solar System" aims to provide information supporting the specification and design of spacecraft that will operate within the heliospheric domain. These missions are primarily solar system science exploration missions but in future could include other missions such as space weather assets located away from the Earth (such as L4 and L5). The service area is also relevant to the heliocentric orbits close to the earth (such as L1 and L2). Many of the products specified in the near-Earth spacecraft design services (Environment Specification Archive, Environment In-orbit verification and Post Event Analysis) are also relevant here although in some cases will need to be scaled according to the specifics of the interplanetary trajectory and heliospheric target. This information includes statistics on the space environment (background solar wind and transient features including coronal mass ejections, stream interaction regions and solar energetic particles as well as solar UV).

→

→
Determination of duration of high speed solar wind and energetic proton enhancements from last 120 days obtained from the HPARC/ST product.

This service is implemented through a combination of products and tools which can be found through the following sections along with expert support provided by the teams constituting the SWE Network. Should you require further guidance in the use of this service, or have specific questions about any aspects of the service presented here, don't hesitate to contact the Helpdesk.

As a starting point for this service we suggest the following products.

This service page is curated by the Heliospheric Weather ESC. For further information, please contact SSCC Helpdesk.

The particular space environment considerations for solar system missions depends on the heliospheric trajectory and solar system target(s) relevant to the mission. These include solar energetic particle radiation, plasmas and micro-particles and additionally trapped radiation and atmospheric effects where relevant to planetary bodies with magnetospheres and/or atmospheres. 

The usual starting point will be the Space Environment Standard ECSS-E-ST-10-04C which provides the minimum environmental standards that should be designed for. These standards are implemented in the Space Environment Information System (SPENVIS). In addition SPENVIS provides access to other relevant models and statistical tools for assessing mission level plasma and radiation environments. Support for a number of planetary bodies including Mars and Jupiter is also provided within SPENVIS.

The H-ESC archive product (HPARC/PB) provides access to previous met Office Enlil model runs, CME characterisations and human forecaster commentary. The timeline of events HPARC/PR can be a useful starting point. The archived H-ESC products can therefore be used to provide the context for post event analysis and for assessing potential conditions that must be considered during design activities.

The Magnetic Connectivity Tool (MAGCTOOL) provides the mapping of the magnetic footprint of a spacecraft to the solar surface. Since solar energetic particles are guided by the interplanetary magnetic field, the proximity of the magnetic footprint to a solar active region can aid the assessment of a flare related SEP event affecting the target. Using the archive function of the tool it is possible to assess whether the magnetic footprint of a spacecraft was close to an active region on the solar surface. This can help to link anomalies to space weather phenomena.

Additional contextual information can be obtained from the historical solar system mission archives (see the AMDA product) which provide access to calibrated science quality measurements obtained from a range of solar system locations and undertaken during different solar cycle conditions. The AMDA product also provides data mining tools to help drill down into the data based on users individual needs.

For further information, please contact SSCC Helpdesk.