Space Environment and Effects Tool for STK (STK-SEET) technical primer

AER's Space Environment and Effects Tool (SEET) provides extensive modeling of the near-Earth space environment, with the capability to predict various effects on space vehicles, in conjunction with AGI's STK software. SEET's functionality is provided by five components consisting of scientific models of the space environment, including: Radiation Environment, South-Atlantic-Anomaly (SAA) Transit, Particle Impacts, Vehicle Temperature, and Magnetic Fields. These components, which are largely derived from models used in the Air Force Research Laboratory's AF-GeoSpace model suite, are seamlessly integrated into the overall STK user interface and fully accessible through STK-Engine as well. Here, a short overview of the components will be given, followed by a technical review of two of the primary ones, SAA-Transit and Radiation Environment, as well as a short demo of the integrated software. The SAA is a near-Earth region of highly energetic charged particles which can easily penetrate spacecraft and create negative impacts (single-event upsets or SEUs) on internal electronics. The radiation environment, here referring specifically to the trapped radiation or Van Allen belts, contributes to longer term degradation of spacecraft components due to cumulative dosing effects.