Starlink satellites become a giant scanner of Earth's upper atmosphere
Researchers used publicly available orbital data from about 1,200 Starlink satellites at roughly 482 km altitude to estimate thermospheric density through atmospheric drag. Applying tomography across the satellite constellation produced a two-dimensional map of density variations by geography, which closely matches observations from ESA’s Swarm satellites. The approach could improve models of satellite motion and collision risk as low-Earth orbit gets busier, and hints at near-real-time atmospheric monitoring using commercial spacecraft data in the future.
