Electrostatic Discharge Detection and Location on Spacecraft Solar Panels

Computer-implemented systems and methods for detecting ESD on a surface and determining an origination location of the ESD. A programmed computer device monitors time-varying current data related to the surface to detect ESD on the surface. The current profile for the surface may be compared to a catalog of ESD current profiles, where each ESD current profile in the catalog corresponds to a different location on the surface. The location on the surface whose corresponding ESD current profile best matches the actual current profile from the ESD may be determined to be the origination location of the ESD. Moderately different processes may be used to determine the ESD origination location depending on whether the surface is symmetrical or irregular, flat or curved, etc.