CosmicDancePro -- Measuring LEO satellite's orbital decay and network connectivity implications during solar storms
2026-04-24 • Networking and Internet Architecture
Networking and Internet ArchitecturePerformance
AI summaryⓘ
The authors created a tool called CosmicDancePro to study how solar storms affect satellites close to Earth, especially big networks like Starlink. They used it to see how Starlink changed its strategies during the big May 2024 solar storm and found out why satellite heights vary in a strange 'W' pattern during such events. They also measured how these storms disrupt satellite internet connections, causing delays and slower speeds. This work helps understand how space weather impacts satellite operations and network reliability.
Low Earth Orbit (LEO)Solar StormSpace WeatherOrbital DecaySatellite ConstellationNetwork ConnectivityAtmospheric DensityStarlinkLatencyUplink Loss
Authors
Suvam Basak, Amitangshu Pal, Debopam Bhattacherjee
Abstract
The May 2024 solar superstorm highlighted the vulnerability of rapidly expanding low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks to severe space weather events. To systematically evaluate LEO network resilience, we introduce an open-source tool, CosmicDancePro. It enables a comprehensive analysis of the effects of solar storms in the LEO satellite network. It integrates real-world multimodal datasets, including space weather measurements from several satellites, upper-atmospheric density conditions from data-driven and high-fidelity physics-based models, and LEO satellite trajectory and LEO network measurement traces to quantify orbital decay driven by enhanced atmospheric density and network connectivity degradation. We utilize CosmicDancePro to analyze the Starlink constellation's behavior during two recent major solar storms. First, we identify the specific fleet management strategies Starlink adopts during the May 2024 solar superstorm and how they differ from its regular orbit-correction strategy. Second, we identify the mechanisms driving the previously unexplained 'W'-shaped altitude variation pattern across orbital planes of LEO constellations. Finally, our network-layer analysis quantifies the connectivity degradation during these storms, revealing transient disruptions that include repetitive short-lived outages, reconfiguration latency spikes above 500 ms, up to 60% increase in uplink loss, distorted diurnal latency patterns, and a 10+ Mbps drop in end-user data rates during storm peaks.