National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's spacecraft anomaly data base and examples of solar activity affecting spacecraft

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Geophysical Data Center maintains a data base of anomalous spacecraft behavior attributed to environmental interactions. This paper introduces the data base and its capabilities. Examples from the data base are presented, and their environmentally related trends are illustrated. The active sun during 1989 provided valuable lessons in the interaction between the space environment and space borne technology. The effects of that activity are summarized.