May solar superstorm caused largest 'mass migration' of satellites in history

[Rick]

May solar superstorm caused largest 'mass migration' of satellites in history

The May solar superstorm that set the night sky around the world ablaze with colorful aurora displays also triggered chaos in orbit as thousands of satellites had to maneuver at the same time to maintain their altitude amid the sudden thickening of the upper atmosphere.

According to a pre-print paper published on the online repository arXiv on June 12, satellites and space debris objects in low Earth orbit — the region of space up to an altitude of 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) — were sinking toward the planet at the speed of 590 feet (180 meters) per day during the four-day storm.

To make up for the loss of altitude, thousands of spacecraft began firing their thrusters at the same time to climb back up. That mass movement, the authors of the paper point out, could have led to dangerous situations because collision avoidance systems didn't have time to calculate the satellites' changing paths.

More: https://www.space.com/may-solar-storm-largest-mass-migration-satellites