Space Weather Effects on Microelectronics Devices around the LEO Spacecraft Environments

Orbiting spacecraft will always be affected by the space environment through their interactions. The main trigger depends on the variability of the radiation environment around the spacecraft such as galactic cosmic rays, solar particle events and the trapped particles. In the low- Earth orbit (LEO), the trapped particles in the radiation belts play a crucial role in affecting the spacecraft in any orbit. The common effects of radiation on spacecraft are charging where some spacecraft components accumulate electric charge from their environment which in turn damaged the spacecraft systems. In addition, space weather will create a stream of charged particles that are associated with solar flares and coronal mass ejections. In this paper, we study the effects of solar radiation on a low orbiting spacecraft (LEO) that would be applied to the equatorial region. Radiation effects in microelectronic components are also discussed. These effects in the radiation environment on an LEO spacecraft are very important in design and testing to mitigate and protect the system from serious damages.