Related papers: Satellite orbital drag during magnetic storms
Understanding extreme space weather events is of paramount importance in efforts to protect technological systems in space and on the ground. Particularly in the thermosphere, the subsequent extreme magnetic storms can pose serious threats…
Satellites, crewed spacecraft and stations in low-Earth orbit (LEO) are very sensitive to atmospheric drag. A satellite's lifetime and orbital tracking become increasingly inaccurate or uncertain during magnetic storms. Given the planned…
Solar events, such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and solar flares, heat up the upper atmosphere and near-Earth space environment. Due to this heating and expansion of the outer atmosphere by the energetic ultraviolet, X-ray and particles…
We investigate the response of space weather events on Earth's upper atmosphere over the polar regions by studying their effect on the drag of the CHAMP and GRACE satellites. Increasing solar activity that results in heating and the…
Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are crucial for communications, navigation, and Earth observation. However, their operational lifetimes are strongly influenced by orbital decay due to atmospheric drag. This work presents a simplified…
Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks are an important part of the global communication infrastructure today. Despite ongoing efforts to improve their resilience, they remain vulnerable to component damage and deorbiting under harsh…
Between May 10-12, 2024, Earth saw its largest geomagnetic storm in over 20 years. Since the last major storm in 2003, the population of satellites in low Earth orbit has surged following the commercialization of space services and the…
Energetic events on the Sun, particularly coronal mass ejections and high speed streams, regulate the near Earth space environment and give rise to space weather. A major terrestrial manifestation of such events are geomagnetic storms. A…
In recent years (2000-2021), human-space activities have been increasing faster than ever. More than 36000 Earth' orbiting objects, all larger than 10 cm, in orbit around the Earth, are currently tracked by the European Space Agency (ESA).…
The equations governing motion of the satellite under the effect of oblateness of Earth and atmospheric drag have been simulated, for a fixed initial position and three different initial velocities, till satellite collapses on Earth.…
The nearby space surrounding the Earth is densely populated by artificial satellites and instruments, whose orbits are distributed within the Low-Earth-Orbit region (LEO), ranging between 90 and 2 000 $km$ of altitude. As a consequence of…
Ambitious satellite constellation projects by commercial entities and the ease of access to space in recent times have led to a dramatic proliferation of low-Earth space traffic. It jeopardizes space safety and long-term sustainability,…
Environment plays a pivotal role in shaping the evolution of satellite galaxies. Analyzing the properties related to the cold gas phase of satellites provides insights into unravelling the complexity of environmental effects. We use the…
We present a refined statistical analysis based on interplanetary coronal mass ejections as well as co-rotating interaction regions for the time period 2003-2015 to estimate the impact of different solar wind types on the geomagnetic…
The exponential increase of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites in the past 5 years has brought into intense focus the need for reliable monitoring and reentry prediction to safeguard from space collisions and ground debris impacts. However,…
This study investigates the orbital decay and subsequent reentries of 12 Starlink satellites from 16 April to 15 May 2024. By examining Two-Line Element data, we observed a significant increase in orbital decay following the geomagnetic…
For the period July 2003 to August 2010, the interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) catalogue maintained by Richardson and Cane lists 106 Earth-directed events, which have been measured in-situ by plasma and field instruments onboard…
How fast a satellite decays its orbit depends on how slowly its mass is lost by tide. Motivated by inner halo satellite remnants like the Sgr and Omega Cen, we develop fully analytical models to study the orbital decay and tidal massloss of…
Capella Space, which designs, builds, and operates a constellation of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Earth-imaging small satellites, faced new challenges with the onset of Solar Cycle 25. By mid-2022, it had become clear that solar activity…
In this study, we investigate thermospheric neutral mass density heating associated with 168 CME-driven geomagnetic storms in the period of May 2001 to September 2011. We use neutral density measured by two low-Earth orbit satellites: CHAMP…