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Originally Posted by Jacinta Bowler, ABC Science, 24 July 2024
While stargazers around the world were trying to catch a glimpse of the widespread auroras in May, satellites were bearing the brunt of the worst geomagnetic storm in 20 years.
US researchers used open-access US data to analyse how satellites fared over the mid-May storm.
Their study, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, found many satellites lost significant altitude and had to quickly manoeuvre back to the correct position.
The researchers suggested a combination of poor forecasting and satellites having to raise themselves back to the correct altitude "en masse" provided an unreasonable risk of satellite collisions.
William Parker, an aeronautical researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and one of the authors of the new paper, believes this risk will only increase over time as satellite constellations like Elon Musk's Starlink launch hundreds of new satellites each month.
"A single collision in orbit … can generate thousands of pieces of orbital debris or space junk that can persist for decades, centuries, or longer," Mr Parker said.
"This debris inevitably leads to more collisions, perpetuating a dangerous cycle."
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Story here :-
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/...link/104100052
Paper, "Satellite Drag Analysis During the May 2024 Gannon Geomagnetic Storm" by Parker et. al. MIT :-
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2406.08617