Space plasma induced arcing on HV solar arrays

The authors review the interactions between HV systems and the low-earth-orbit environment. The mechanism responsible for the observed arcing on negatively-biased solar arrays is discussed, and calculations of the plasma density dependence on de voltage threshold are compared with experiments. For positively biased systems, they discuss the enhancement of current collection resulting from neutral ionization within the electron collection sheath. Numerical simulations for the effect are also presented. The authors discuss the altitude and voltage range in which these two effects will be important. Techniques are presented to ameliorate these effects