Benchmarking Ionizing Space Environment Models

In-flight feedback data are collected, such as displacement damage doses, ionizing doses, and cumulated Single Event upset (SEU) on board various space vehicles and are compared to predictions performed with: proton measurements performed with spectrometers data on board the same spacecraft if any and protons spectrum predicted by the legacy AP8min model and the AP9 and Onera Proton Altitude Low models. When an accurate representation of the 3-D spacecraft shielding as well as appropriate ground calibrations are considered in the calculations, such comparisons provide powerful metrics to investigate engineering model accuracy. To describe >30 MeV trapped protons fluxes, the AP8 min model is found to provide closer predictions to observations than AP9 V1.30.001 (mean and perturbed mean).