Originally posted to uk.sci.astronomy.
Recent Solar Activity - A Casualty List...
From:Keith Dancey
19 November 2003
ANOMALIES RELATED TO RECENT SOLAR ACTIVITY
Collected by David Webb from various sources for events arising from recent flares, CMEs, and geomagnetic storms.
[Forwarded by Joe H. Allen (SCOSTEP) as per telcon with D. Webb]
Oct. 23: Genesis solar wind satellite at L1 entered safe mode. Normal operations resumed on Nov. 3.
Oct. 24: Airlines rerouted polar flights due to bad HF/VHF communication.
Midori-2 Earth-observing satellite failed, probably
lost; Safe mode, Power dropped, Telemetry lost (23:55).
Stardust comet mission went into safe mode due to read errors; recovered.
Chandra X-ray astronomy satellite observations halted due to high radiation
levels (09:34 EDT). Restarted Oct. 25.
GOES-9, 10 and 12 had high bit error rates (9 and 10) and magnetic torquers
disabled (12) due to activity.
Oct. 25: RHESSI solar satellite had spontaneous rest of CPU (10:42).
Oct. 26: SMART-1 had auto shutdown of engine due to increased
radiation level in lunar transfer orbit (19:23). (<---local)
One instrument on Integral satellite went into safe mode because of increased
radiation.
Chandra observations halted again autonomously. Later resumed.
Oct. 27: NOAA-17 AMSU-A1 lost scanner.
GOES-8 X-ray Sensor turned itself off and could not be recovered.
Oct. 28 - 30:
Astronauts on Intl. Space Station went into service module for radiation
protection.
FAA issued first-ever alert on radiation doses received by airplane
passengers above 25K
ft. [see also information on 29-30 Sept 1989 proton event that set off on-board warnings on commercial SSTs --- JHA]
Power system failure in Malmo, Sweden (Oct. 30, 21:07 LT).
ACE & Wind solar wind satellites lost plasma observations; Electron sensors
of GOES satellite in geosynchronous orbit saturated.
Chandra observations halted again on Oct. 28 autonomously due to radiation.
Observations resumed Nov. 1.
Kodama data relay satellite in geosynch.; Safe mode, signals noisy, Recovery
unknown (Oct. 29)
DMSP F16 SSIES sensor lost data twice, on Oct. 28 and Nov. 3; Recovered.
Microwave sounder lost oscillator; Switched to redundant system.
RHESSI satellite had 2 more spontaneous resets of CPU (28, 17:40; 29, 03:32).
CHIPS satellite computer went offline on Oct. 29 and contact lost with the
spacecraft for 18 hr. When contacted the S/C was tumbling; recovered
successfully. Offline for a total of 27 hrs.
CDS instrument on SOHO spacecraft at the L1 point commanded into Safe mode
for 3 days ( Oct.
28-30). (<---local)
Mars Odyssey spacecraft entered Safe mode and MARIE instrument had a
temperature red alarm leading it to be powered off (Oct. 28). During
downloading on Oct. 29, S/C had a memory error that was corrected with a cold
reboot on Oct. 31.
The twin Mars Explorer Rover spacecraft both entered Sun Idle mode due to
excessive star tracker events. Stable and will wait for recovery.
SIRTF, in orbit drifting behind Earth, turned off science experiments and
went to Earth pointing due to high proton fluxes (Oct. 28). 4 days of
operations lost.
X-ray Timing Explorer science satellite Proportional Counter Assembly (PCA)
experienced high voltages and the All Sky Monitor autonomously shut off (Oct.
29). On Oct. 30 both instruments recovered, but PCA again shut down. PCA
recovery delayed into November.
Microwave Anisotropy Probe spacecraft star tracker reset and backup tracker
autonomously turned on (Oct. 28). Prime tracker recovered.
Two ultraviolet experiments on GALEX science satellite had excess charge so
high voltages turned off. Detectors will remain off until later in Nov.
Despun platform on Polar satellite went out of lock 3 times but recovered
automatically each time.
Some of the 4 Cluster spacecraft had processor resets but
recovered. (<--- local)
NASA's Earth Sciences Mission Office directed all instruments on 5 spacecraft
be turned off or safed due to Level 5 storm prediction (Oct. 29). Satellites
affected: AQUA, Landsat, TERRA, TOMS, TRMM.
Wisconsin & New York: High current levels in transmission lines.
Changes prohibited to airplane routes N of 57o lat. Some U.S. flights
rerouted. British trans-Atlantic routes moved south.
WAAS service interrupted in CONUS; High latitude GPS receiver outages
Military communications impacted (HF/UHF SATCOM)/OTH/Classified users
Loran C station in Newfoundland had interference.
Nov.
2: Chandra observations halted again autonomously due to radiation. Resumption of observations will be delayed for days.
Nov.
6: Polar TIDE instrument reset itself and high voltage supplies were disabled; recovered within 24 hr.
Mars Odyssey spacecraft commanded out of Safe mode; operations
nominal.
General:
Satellite
operators: Satellites put into safe modes, solar panels rotated, operations reduced.
Power grid managers: Less use of and switching between systems.
Revised: 19 Nov. 2003, D. Webb (additions by JHA after talking to David)
Late addition:
> NEWSALERT: Thursday, November 27, 2003 @ 1442 GMT
>
>
> The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now
>>
>
> RADIATION MONITORING DEVICE FAILS ON MARS SPACECRAFT
>
> The martian radiation environment experiment on NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey
> orbiter stopped working last month during a period of intense solar
> activity, the space agency announced Wednesday.
>
>
spaceflightnow.com/news/n0311/26marsradiation/
>
and from JPL on the same subject:
Guy Webster (818) 354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
News Release: 2003-156 November 26, 2003
Mars Odyssey Mission Status
The martian radiation environment experiment on NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey
orbiter has collected data continuously from the start of the Odyssey
mapping mission in March 2002 until late last month. The instrument has
successfully monitored space radiation to evaluate the risks to future
Mars-bound astronauts. Its measurements are the first of their kind to be
obtained during an interplanetary cruise and in orbit around another planet.
On Oct. 28, 2003, during a period of intense solar activity, the instrument
stopped working properly. Controllers' efforts to restore the instrument to
normal operations have not been successful. These efforts will continue for
the next several weeks or months.
The martian radiation environment experiment detects energetic charged
particles, including galactic cosmic rays and particles emitted by the Sun
in coronal mass ejections. The dose equivalent from galactic cosmic rays as
measured by the instrument agrees well with predictions based on modeling.
Validation of radiation models is a crucial step in predicting
radiation-related health risks for crews of future missions.
"Even if the instrument provides no additional data in the future, it has
been a great success at characterizing the radiation environment that a
crewed mission to Mars would need to anticipate," said Dr. Jeffrey Plaut,
project scientist for Mars Odyssey at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif.
JPL manages the Mars Odyssey and Global Surveyor missions for NASA's Office
of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Investigators at Arizona State
University, Tempe; University of Arizona, Tucson; NASA's Johnson Space
Center, Houston; the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, Moscow; and Los
Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M., built and operate Odyssey
science instruments. Information about NASA's Mars exploration program is
available on the Internet at:
mars.jpl.nasa.gov
.
(Since I haven't heard of any deterioration in the state of Mars Express's
solar
panals, I assume they, at least, survived intact.)
Cheers,
keith
---
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