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Astronomer watches Starlink satellites sinking to build a 'planetary barometer'
by whh
by whh
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
This way you can - for example - track water height of a river next to a station. You basically receive the direct GNSS signal and the reflected one. Then do magic math.
Due to the low orbit of the GPS/Galileo/etc. satellites the reflection is basically "scanning" over the area of interest with an ultra precise signal.
It doesn't require super-cooled radio stuff and can be done with off-the-shelf-gear.
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.
The report itself https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/ESA_Space_Envi...
About pricing: https://www.satellitetoday.com/launch/2026/09/17/the-era-of-...
I'm not sure we're coming out ahead on that one, but leave it to a guy who can detect things light-years away to be able to find a silver lining
Wouldn't the market pricing only reflect this after that fact? Up until it happens and no one knows any better, business will continue as usual because otherwise numbers don't go up. Like any past financial crisis, things look fine until they don't.
You can do some rudimentary localization by latitude, however, by comparing satellites in different inclinations. You also get data by altitude, of course.
Something like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOCE
Easier to look at the altitude loss and infer the acceleration indirectly. With access to the raw higher time-resolution altitude data, mapping should be possible.
SpaceX has in the past gone above and beyond to expose TLE data for scientists and astronomers[1], so it's possible that people inside SpaceX would be open to collaborating on such a project.
[0] https://www.pcb.com/sensors-for-test-measurement/acceleromet...
There is a fair bit of statistical rigour described in the original article at : https://www.spaceweather.com/starlink/starlink_drag_explaine...
A bulge would not homogenously slow all satellites, each one would be slowed by a different amount depending on its particular path through the bulge. Those that pass through more of the bulge will be slowed to a greater extent than those passing briefly through. Satellites in different orbits tell you where the bulge is, satellites in the same orbit tell you how the bulge is moving.