Hubble Space Telescope's CCD detectors have been monitoring radiation damage in Low Earth Orbit for over 24 years, serving as sensitive dosimeters. The damage rate varies with each Solar cycle but several years out of phase with sunspots or coronal mass ejections.

Researchers investigated functional forms that fit radiation damage time series data from telescopes across the Solar system. While they achieved remarkably accurate fits to Hubble data, these fits used physically absurd parameter values.

During image post-processing, these empirical fits can correct more than 99.5% of radiation damage effects on image quality. However, fits with physically reasonable parameters performed worse.

The findings highlight the diversity of radiation environments throughout the Solar system and the complexity of Low Earth Orbit. Continued monitoring of radiation damage to operational spacecraft will help predict degradation rates and useful lifespans for future missions.