On the Radiation Effects of Strontium Ions on Satellite Solar Cells in Low Earth Orbits

TL;DR

This paper investigates the radiation effects of Sr+ ions from high-altitude nuclear explosions on satellite solar cells in low Earth orbit, using a new environment model and radiation transport codes to assess damage levels.

Contribution

It introduces a novel modeling approach to quantify Sr+ ion radiation effects on satellite solar cells, including damage assessment and sensitivity analysis.

Findings

Sr+ ions have limited darkening effects on quartz coverglasses in LEO.

High fluences can cause severe displacement damage to PV cells.

Radiation effects are less significant at orbits beyond ten thousand km.

Abstract

This study focuses on the radiation effects of Sr+ ions--generated from high-altitude nuclear explosions (HANE)--on satellite solar cells in low-Earth orbits (LEO). Along four selected satellite orbits, ion fluences are sampled inside the evolving Sr+ ion distributions for days, determined from our newly developed HANE environment model. These fluences, along with the help of radiation transport codes including the MULASSIS and SRIM models, enable us to quantify the radiation damages by determining the values of total ionizing doses and the equivalent 1 MeV electron fluences for displacement damages. Comparing the dose values to existing experimental data, we conclude that HANE-generated Sr+ ions have limited darkening effects to quartz solar cell coverglasses in LEO with apogees of 100s to 1000 km. In addition, with the extremely high equivalent fluences, we also conclude that these Sr ions may cause severe or even fatal displacement damage to exposed solar photovoltaic (PV) cells on satellites in LEO. The radiation effects of Sr+ ions are much less significant for the orbits with high apogees beyond ten thousand km. We also conducted model parameter sensitivity studies on the charge exchange cross-sections, neutral atmosphere density profiles and explosion local time positions, and the above conclusions stay unchanged. The methodology developed in this study can be extended to other HANE-generated heavy ion species in the future.