Numerical calculations of high-altitude differential charging: Preliminary results

A two dimensional simulation program was constructed in order to obtain theoretical predictions of floating potential distributions on geostationary spacecraft. The geometry was infinite-cylindrical with angle dependence. Effects of finite spacecraft length on sheath potential profiles can be included in an approximate way. The program can treat either steady-state conditions or slowly time-varying situations, involving external time scales much larger than particle transit times. Approximate, locally dependent expressions were used to provide space charge, density profiles, but numerical orbit-following is used to calculate surface currents. Ambient velocity distributions were assumed to be isotropic, beam-like, or some superposition of these.