The 10 October 2024 geomagnetic storm may have caused the premature reentry of a Starlink satellite

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2411.01654v1.pdf (3.73 MB)

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2411.01654

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https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2411.01654
 http://hdl.handle.net/11603/37065

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UMBC Goddard Planetary Heliophysics Institute (GPHI)
UMBC Faculty Collection

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https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2078-7229

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2024-11-03

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journal articles
preprints
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Citation of Original Publication

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This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
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Physics - Space Physics

Abstract

In this short communication, we qualitatively analyze possible effects of the 10 October 2024 geomagnetic storm on accelerating the reentry of a Starlink satellite from low-Earth orbit (LEO). The storm took place near the maximum of solar cycle (SC) 25, which has shown to be more intense than SC24. Based on preliminary geomagnetic indices, the 10 October 2024, along with the 10 May 2024, were the most intense events since the well-known Halloween storms of October/November 2003. By looking at a preliminary version of the Dst index and two-line element (TLE) altitude data of the Starlink-1089 (SL1089) satellite, we observe a possible connection between storm main phase onset and a sharp decay of SL1089. The satellite was scheduled to reenter on 22 October, but it reentered on 12 October, 10 days before schedule. The sharp altitude decay of SL1089 revealed by TLE data coincides with the storm main phase onset. Therefore, we call for future research to establish the eventual causal relationship between storm occurrence and satellite orbital decay. As predicted by previous works, SC25 is already producing extreme geomagnetic storms with unprecedented satellite orbital drag effects and consequences for current megaconstellations in LEO.