[P-EM09] Space Weather and Space Climate

[PEM09-18] Effects of Thermospheric Mass Density Fluctuations on LEO Satellites

*Hitoshi Fujiwara¹, Yasunobu Miyoshi², Ryuho Kataoka³, Daikou Shiota⁴, Hidekatsu Jin⁴, Chihiro Tao⁴, Hiroyuki Shinagawa⁴ (1.Education and Research Center for Sustainable Development/Faculty of Science and Technology, Seikei University, 2.Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Kyushu University, 3.National Institute of Polar Research, 4.National Institute of Information and Communications Technology)

Keywords:LEO satellite, Thermospheric mass density, atmospheric drag, GAIA

In recent years, the number of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and small satellites is increasing. Many countries and private companies have large numbers of satellites. Space and space business will become even more familiar in the near future. On the other hand, issues such as the safety operation of spacecraft (e.g., technical and international legal issues) and the issue of space debris remain. Prediction of thermospheric mass density fluctuations is important for both spacecraft operation and space debris problems since atmospheric drag greatly influences the motion of space objects in space near the Earth.

The accident of the Starlink satellites in February 2022 is still fresh in our minds. Many space weather researchers and space engineers expressed keen interest in the accident. For example, Dang et al. (2022) and Kataoka et al. (2022) reported the space weather effects on the Starlink satellites during 3-4 February 2022 geomagnetic disturbances caused by the solar CME arrival at the Earth. They suggested that the thermospheric mass density enhancements (> 50 %) affected the satellites at 210 km altitude through the large atmospheric drag.

In this presentation, we would like to discuss the roles of space weather modeling for social life and industry. In particular, I would like to mention how the whole atmosphere-ionosphere model, e.g., GAIA, can contribute to them. In addition to prediction of the ionospheric variations (Tao et al., 2020), we will discuss the usefulness of GAIA in satellite operations.

References

Tong Dang, Xiaolei Li, Bingxian Luo, Ruoxi Li, Binzheng Zhang, Kevin Pham, Dexin Ren, Xuetao Chen, Jiuhou Lei, Yuming Wang, Unveiling the Space Weather During the Starlink Satellites Destruction Event on 4 February 2022, Space Weather, 20, e2022SW003152. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022SW003152, 2022.

Ryuho Kataoka, Daikou Shiota, Hitoshi Fujiwara, Hidekatsu Jin, Chihiro Tao, Hiroyuki Shinagawa and Yasunobu Miyoshi, Unexpected space weather causing the reentry of 38 Starlink satellites in February 2022, J. Space Weather Space Clim., 12, 41, doi: https://doi.org/10.1051/swsc/2022034.

Chihiro Tao, Hidekatsu Jin, Yasunobu Miyoshi, Hiroyuki Shinagawa, Hitoshi Fujiwara, Michi Nishioka & Mamoru Ishii (2020), Numerical forecast of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere using GAIA, Earth, Planets and Space, 72:178
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-020-01307-x.