Illustration of a satellite constellation: Credit: ESA

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   Fraser Cain (fraser@m.universetoday.com)'s status on Wednesday, 11-Jun-2025 05:47:58 JST Fraser Cain

   Satellites in low-Earth orbit are still passing through a tiny amount of the Earth's atmosphere, which increases their drag, eventually pulling them into a fiery re-entry. But serious solar storms can cause the Earth's atmosphere to puff out, causing more drag on satellites and increasing their rate of orbital decay. A new paper discovered that a powerful solar storm in 2018 caused 25 m of orbital decay on a satellite. They propose how to decrease susceptibility to drag.

   https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.03305