Space weather and space anomalies

Abstract

A large database of anomalies, registered by 220 satellites in different orbits over the period 1971-1994 has been compiled. For the first time, data from 49 Russian Kosmos satellites have been included in a statistical analysis. The database also contains a large set of daily and hourly space weather parameters. A series of statistical analyses made it possible to quantify, for different satellite orbits, space weather conditions on the days characterized by anomaly occurrences. In particular, very intense fluxes (> 1000 pfu at energy > 10 MeV) of solar protons are linked to anomalies registered by satellites in high-altitude (>15 000 km), near-polar (inclination >55°) orbits typical for navigation satellites, such as those used in the GPS network, NAVSTAR, etc. (the rate of anomalies increases by a factor ∼20), and to a much smaller extent to anomalies in geostationary orbits, (they increase by a factor ∼4). Direct and indirect connections between anomaly occurrence and geomagnetic perturbations are also discussed. © European Geosciences Union 2005.