On Friday, Feb 4, a weak Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) hit Earth. The event was supposed to pass by uneventfully — it would perhaps spark a few auroras, but nothing more. So how did a G1 geomagnetic storm ensue? How did the KP hit level 5? And how did 40+ Starlink satellites come crashing back down to Earth?
SpaceX confirmed the event yesterday: “On Thursday, Feb 3 at 1:13 p.m. EST, Falcon 9 launched 49 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. … Unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday, [Feb 4].”
Dr Tony Phillips of spaceweather.com provides the following graphic:
https://electroverse.net/weak-solar-storm-sends-40-starlink-satellites-plunging-to-earth-deep-snow-alaska-usas-coldest-jan-in-8-years/
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