Quantifying the average and the likelihood of increases in space weather indices and in situ measurements during Solar Cycles 20-23
by Whitney Q. Lohmeyer; Anthony Pang; Kerri Cahoy; Yuri Shprits
International Journal of Space Science and Engineering (IJSPACESE), Vol. 1, No. 3, 2013

Abstract: It is known that space weather harshly affects spacecraft performance, yet spacecraft operations and understanding the cause of anomalies can be challenging due to the complexity of environmental metrics. In this work, we analyse five metrics and in-situ measurements (Kp, Dst, and AE index, and high-energy proton and electron flux) throughout Solar Cycles 20-23 (1964 to 2008), and provide a baseline for the environment during the phases of the solar cycles (maximum, minimum, declining or ascending). We define increased activity as activity greater than two median absolute deviations (MADs) above the average activity for each phase. MAD is used, rather than standard deviation, because it is more resilient to outliers. The average and MAD values are tabulated in Table 3 to Table 6. We determine the probability that increased activity occurs 3, 14 or 30 days before a random day to distinguish between increased/quiet activities and to aid in correlating intensifications of the environment and anomalous satellite performance.

Online publication date: Wed, 30-Apr-2014

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Space Science and Engineering (IJSPACESE):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com