The solar superstorm in May caused the largest "mass migration" of satellites in history

Jul 24. () –

The solar superstorm which took place last May, between the 10th and 12th of that month and which caused the northern lights, caused the greatest “mass migration” of all active satellites, according to a preliminary study by American scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), published in the online repository arXiv.

The study notes that satellites and space debris objects in low Earth orbit (the region of space up to an altitude of 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers)) plunged toward the planet at a rate of 590 feet (180 meters) per day during the solar storm.

To compensate for the loss of altitude, experts say, thousands of spacecraft began firing their thrusters at the same time to ascend again. This mass movement could have caused dangerous situations because the anti-collision systems did not have time to calculate the changes in the satellites’ trajectories.

“The May 2024 geomagnetic storm was the first major storm to occur during a new paradigm in low-Earth orbit satellite operations dominated by small commercial satellites.“say the study’s authors, William Parker and Richard Linares of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The paper further highlights that space weather forecasts prior to the May storm failed to clearly predict the event’s duration and intensity, making satellite collision predictions nearly impossible.

“Automatic station keeping, especially from the Starlink constellation, caused nearly half of all active satellites in (low Earth orbit) to maneuver simultaneously in response to the storm. The combination of unpredictable satellite drag and massive maneuvering made it very difficult or impossible to identify potential conjunctions during the storm and in the days afterward,” the study indicates.

Finally, the experts conclude that while the storm posed a risk to the environment in the short term, it also helped accelerate the removal of debris populations from orbit. This passive removal of debris is critical to the long-term sustainability of operations. Looking ahead, it is important that we recognize the limits that the environment imposes on satellite activity,” the authors conclude.