Times of Existence of Technogenic Microparticles Injected into Near-Earth Space in a Geostationary Orbit

Based on results of numerical modeling, this paper shows for the first time the possibility of a long-term orbital existence of technogenic aluminum-oxide particles separating from the surface of an active geostationary satellite or a "debris" object "buried" in the vicinity of a geostationary orbit. It is shown that, under the conditions of low solar and geomagnetic activity, particles with radii exceeding a threshold value close to 1.1 mu m have long orbital times of existence (more than 1 month). The times of orbital existence of technogenic particles with radii greater than the indicated threshold value virtually do not depend on the initial position of an injection point in a geostationary orbit and grow rapidly with increasing radius of a technogenic particle. So, the time of orbital existence of a particle with a radius of 3 mu m is equal to 130 days, while for a particle with radius of 3.52 mu m, this time is more than 2 years (!). The results of numerical experiments have shown that, under conditions of low solar and geomagnetic activity, submicron technogenic particles with radii less than 0.1 mu m can also have long orbital existence times. The analysis of calculated data has shown that the long-lived particles with radii in the range from 0.01 to 0.1 mu m have moved in the so-called "Keplerian" mode of motion. In addition, the possibility of long-term (more than 2 years) orbital existence of ultrasmall technogenic particles with radii less than 0.01 mu m injected in a geostationary orbit was demonstrated. The analysis has shown that, in this case, the technogenic particle has moved in the "so-called magnetic-gravitational capture mode."