Astronomer turns Starlink satellites into a planetary barometer
Astronomer watches Starlink satellites sinking to build a 'planetary barometer'
Dr. Tony Phillips, who runs spaceweather.com, has found a way to use SpaceX's Starlink constellation as a barometer. By analyzing public tracking data for 1,000 Starlink satellites plus 107 Planet Labs SuperDoves, 391 Amazon Kuiper satellites, and 651 Eutelsat OneWeb birds, he monitors how atmospheric expansion accelerates orbital decay. The drag term B* in each TLE reveals air density, letting him watch the atmosphere 'breathe' with a two-day lag behind solar radio flux. The swarm itself is the sensor.
No instrument was launched for this. The swarm itself is the sensor, read from public tracking data.
- BlackRabbit1
That's cool.
Reminds me that scientists can use GPS to track earthquakes indirectly as it is interacting with the ionosphere: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40623-025-02211-y
- pclowes
Any solid citations for "and has pushed Low Earth Orbit to the brink of the Kessler Syndrome."?
I would be honestly intrigued but wary of just the usual Elon bad/good so all things he does bad/good narratives.
If we are on the brink of Kessler Syndrome in LEO I would expect market pricing to reflect that.
- ortusdux
Link to article: https://www.spaceweather.com/starlink/starlink_drag_explaine...