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Starlink orbital data yield first tomographic map of thermospheric density
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Researchers used orbital data from roughly 1,200 Starlink satellites to reconstruct changes in atmospheric density about 500 kilometers above Earth, producing a two-dimensional map.
Accurate thermospheric density measurements are critical for predicting satellite motion and avoiding collisions in increasingly crowded low Earth orbit. This technique offers a new way to observe a region that is difficult to measure directly, potentially improving space weather forecasting and satellite operations.
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Researchers used publicly available orbital data from about 1,200 Starlink satellites to estimate thermospheric density at 482 kilometers altitude.
They produced a two-dimensional latitude-longitude map of density at roughly 500 kilometers, the first tomographic analysis of its kind.
The density patterns matched observations from ESA's SWARM satellites, and the technique could eventually support near-real-time density monitoring.
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