A review on satellite solar array arcing phenomenon

In today´s world, communicating from any part of world to the other end is not a difficult or challenging job. Satellites play the most important role in wireless communication. Each country is trying to design the most economical, durable and reliable satellites serving multipurpose like communication, weather forecasting, meteorology, radar operations and various observational researches. After launching, once parked at a specific altitude and orbit, satellite uses solar energy to perform its routine operations which include receiving, amplifying and retransmitting of signals. Among these functions, amplification consumes the maximum amount of energy. For a communication satellite the power requirement lies between few KW to few tens of KW. Solar arrays supported by the batteries are the only source of providing required power to the satellite. This power is produced by a series parallel combination of solar cells which is also known as solar arrays. It has been observed that if the satellite bus voltage is increased beyond a certain voltages, arcing in observed which gradually damages the solar array partially or completely. Before launching the satellite, designing of solar panels emphasized. A laboratory setup incorporated with space-like facilities is developed of testing solar coupons. This is relatively new area of research which is interdisciplinary in nature and requires the contribution of electrical engineers, material scientist, and plasma physicist. This paper discusses about basic introduction of satellite its subsystems, and the arcing phenomena happening on solar array surface and possible ways to study this problem in detail. A simulation facility developed to study arcing on solar coupons is also discussed.