Astronomer turns Starlink satellites into a 'planetary barometer'

Astronomer Tony Phillips has proposed using orbital decay data from Starlink, Kuiper, OneWeb and SuperDove satellites to measure the density of Earth's upper atmosphere. He analyzes the B* drag term in public TLE data from US Space Force: when the atmosphere expands, satellites slow more than models expect and B* grows.

• Phillips analyzes TLE data for 1,000 Starlink, 391 Kuiper, 651 OneWeb and 107 SuperDove satellites
• The B* term in TLE data reflects atmospheric density via satellite drag
• Orbit sink rate lags the sun's 10.7 cm radio flux by about two days
• Geomagnetic storms cause sharp spikes in the satellites' sink rate