{"id":299329,"date":"2024-02-02T10:24:54","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T09:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=299329"},"modified":"2024-02-02T10:24:57","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T09:24:57","slug":"will-satellite-megaconstellations-weaken-earths-magnetic-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=299329","title":{"rendered":"Will Satellite Megaconstellations Weaken Earth\u2019s Magnetic\u00a0Field?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Spaceweather.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By DR.TONY PHILLIPS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feb. 1, 2024:<\/strong> Something unprecedented is happening in Earth orbit. In only a few short years, the satellite population has skyrocketed, more than doubling since 2020. In the past year alone, more satellites have been launched than during the first thirty years of the Space Age. Much of this activity is driven by SpaceX and its growing mega-constellation of Starlink internet satellites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Environmentalists have raised many concerns about Starlink including light-pollution<\/a> of the night sky, a potentially hazardous traffic jam<\/a> in low-Earth orbit, and even ozone depletion<\/a>. Copycat mega-constellations by other companies and countries will only multiply these concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now there\u2019s a new reason to worry. According to\u00a0a new study<\/a>\u00a0by Sierra Solter, megaconstellations could alter and weaken Earth\u2019s magnetic field.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Solter is a graduate student at the University of Iceland, working on her PhD in plasma physics. She recently realized something overlooked by many senior colleagues: \u201cMore than 500,000 satellites are expected in decades ahead, primarily to build internet megaconstellations. Every satellite that goes up will eventually come down, disintegrating in Earth\u2019s atmosphere. This will create a massive layer of conducting, electrically charged particles around our planet.\u201d

To understand the scale of the problem, consider the following: If you gathered up every charged particle in Earth\u2019s Van Allen Belts, their combined mass would be only 0.00018 kg<\/a>. Other components of the magnetosphere such as the ring current and plasmasphere are even less massive. For comparison, \u201cthe mass of a second generation Starlink satellite is 1250 kilograms, all of which will become conductive debris when the satellite is eventually de-orbited,\u201d says Solter.

Metal debris from a single deorbited Starlink satellite is 7 million times<\/strong> more massive than the Van Allen Belts. An entire megaconstellation is billions of times<\/strong> more massive. These ratios point to a big problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe space industry is adding enormous amounts of material to the magnetosphere in comparison to natural levels of particulate matter,\u201d says Solter. \u201cDue to the conductive nature of the satellite debris, this may perturb or change things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is already evidence of this process in action. A 2023 study<\/a> by researchers using a high-altitude NASA aircraft found that 10% of aerosols in the stratosphere contain aluminum and other metals from disintegrating satellites and rocket stages. These particles are drifting down from \u201cthe ablation zone\u201d 70 to 80 km above Earth\u2019s surface where meteors and satellites burn up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solter decided to look for changes in the electrical properties of the ablation zone\u2013and she found something. A NASA model of the upper atmosphere shows a sharp increase in the \u201cDebye Length\u201d just where satellites break apart when they deorbit:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cDebye Length\u201d is a number that tells researchers how far an unbalanced electrical charge can be felt in conducting plasmas. The fact that it changes abruptly in the same place satellites disintegrate may be significant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extrapolating into the future, Solter worries that satellite debris could weaken Earth\u2019s magnetic field\u2013the same magnetic field that protects us from cosmic rays and solar storms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a textbook undergraduate physics problem,\u201d she explains. \u201cSuppose you put a conductive shell (satellite debris) around a spherical magnet (Earth). Outside the shell, the magnetic field goes to zero due to shielding effects. This is a highly simplified comparison, of course, but we might actually be doing this to our planet.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solter\u2019s preliminary study appears to show that the space industry is indeed perturbing the environment.  \u201cIt is very concerning,\u201d she concludes. \u201cWe absolutely cannot dump endless amounts of conductive dust into the magnetosphere and not expect some kind of impact. Multidisciplinary studies of this pollution are urgently needed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information, you can read Solter\u2019s original research here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Something unprecedented is happening in Earth orbit. In only a few short years, the satellite population has skyrocketed, more than doubling since 2020. In the past year alone, more satellites have been launched than during the first thirty years of the Space Age. Much of this activity is driven by SpaceX and its growing mega-constellation of Starlink internet satellites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":299333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Something unprecedented is happening in Earth orbit. In only a few short years, the satellite population has skyrocketed, more than doubling since 2020. In the past year alone, more satellites have been launched than during the first thirty years of the S","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691825513,691822607,691826681,691826680],"class_list":{"0":"post-299329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-earth-orbit","9":"tag-earths-magnetic-field","10":"tag-megaconstellations","11":"tag-spacex","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/0Earth_s_magnetic_field_pillars.jpg?fit=1920%2C1757&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1fRT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":437887,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=437887","url_meta":{"origin":299329,"position":0},"title":"Thousands of Orbiting Mirrors Could Permanently Alter Earth’s Night Sky\u2014and Our Biology","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/04\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"A California startup called Reflect Orbital has applied to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for approval to launch a constellation of steerable mirror satellites.","rel":"","context":"In \"European Biological Rhythms Society (EBRS)\"","block_context":{"text":"European Biological Rhythms Society (EBRS)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=european-biological-rhythms-society-ebrs"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Thousands-of-Orbiting-Mirrors-Could-Permanently-Alter-Earths-Night-Sky%E2%80%94and-Our-Biology.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Thousands-of-Orbiting-Mirrors-Could-Permanently-Alter-Earths-Night-Sky%E2%80%94and-Our-Biology.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Thousands-of-Orbiting-Mirrors-Could-Permanently-Alter-Earths-Night-Sky%E2%80%94and-Our-Biology.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Thousands-of-Orbiting-Mirrors-Could-Permanently-Alter-Earths-Night-Sky%E2%80%94and-Our-Biology.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Thousands-of-Orbiting-Mirrors-Could-Permanently-Alter-Earths-Night-Sky%E2%80%94and-Our-Biology.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":260236,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=260236","url_meta":{"origin":299329,"position":1},"title":"Geomagnetic Storms Pump Terawatts into the\u00a0Thermosphere","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/06\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A series of geomagnetic storms in 2023 has pumped terawatts of energy into Earth\u2019s upper atmosphere, helping to push the temperature and height of Earth\u2019s upper atmosphere to a 20-year high. 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