Satellite Flaring Paper
Document text — page 1 excerpt
027 All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO)
An AARO Information Paper Correlations of Starlink1 Satellite Flaring with UAP Observations
December 2024
Introduction With the advent of satellite communication mega-constellations including the SpaceX Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb, Amazon Kuiper, and Chinese G60 constellations, there are currently thousands of artificial satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO)1 and tens of thousands more planned for launch over the next decade [1]. Satellite flaring is an optical phenomenon which occurs when sunlight reflects off a satellite's surfaces, such as antennas or solar panels. This paper discusses specular and diffuse reflection of sunlight from man-made satellites and how these effects can be misinterpreted as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). It also provides a method for observers to determine whether observations may be attributable to satellite flaring.
Background Using reflected sunlight from man-made satellites to observe and track their movement goes back to the earliest days of space exploration [2]. As noted above, several companies develop and launch mega-constellations, providing internet access to most of the globe. Currently, there are nearly 10,000 artificial satellites in LEO and this number is expected to grow several-fold over the next decade [1]. Figure 1 illustrates the location of Starlink satellites in orbit as of December 2, 2024, at 11:00 AM Eastern Standard Time. As of the end of November 2024, there were over 6,700 Starlink satellites in orbit.
Figure 2 illustrates the concepts of diffuse and specular reflections, which describe how light bounces off objects. Figure 3 shows how sunlight reflected in these two ways is directed toward an observer on the surface of the Earth. As seen in the left side of Figure…
Page excerpts
- Page 1 027 All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) An AARO Information Paper Correlations of Starlink1 Satellite Flaring with UAP Observations December 2024 Introduction With the advent of satellite…
- Page 2 027 All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) comparable to starlight. Due to their construction and orientation, many man-made satellites in LEO diffusely reflect sunlight and can appear as stars…
- Page 3 027 All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) These very bright, short lived flashes of light are called "satellite flares" or "satellite glint." The design, launch, and operation of SpaceX…
- Page 4 027 All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) dozens of small satellites during a single launch event. Immediately following a launch, and for several days afterward, these satellites form a…
- Page 5 027 All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) After the satellites have separated and traversed a specific distance from one another, they enter the second phase known as orbital raise. During this…
- Page 6 027 All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) that discuss how to predict the azimuth and elevation angles of satellite flares to assist a ground-based observer. The key to performing this…
- Page 7 027 All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) the Sun and the Earth's surface at the horizon as viewed from an observer's position on the earth. During the day, solar altitude is a positive number…
- Page 8 027 All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) where h is satellite height above the Earth's surface, RE is the Earth's radius. As the zenith angle is complementary angle of the look angle, ε, the…
- Page 9 027 All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) Error! Reference source not found. These numbers will vary for satellites with different orbital altitudes, but these guidelines are suitable for the…
- Page 10 027 All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) Suppose AARO personnel want to gather images and video of Starlink flares to support the development of this information paper. AARO personnel travel…