# Space Weather Effects on Satellites
## 3 Notable Satellite Failures
### The 'SpaceX' Storm: 2022-02-03
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Date** & **Name/Type** & **Orbit/Location** & **Anomaly Description** & **Probable Cause** \\ \hline
1979-07-11 & Skylab 4 & LEO & orbital decay due to atmospheric drag failures in railway traffic signaling in Sweden & solar activity? \\
1982-07 & various & ground & traffic signaling in Sweden & GICs \\
1982-07, 1989-10, & power grid & ground & significant disturbance of UK power system & GICs \\
1991-11 & QWARECS-A & GEO & uncommanded & electron enhancement \\
1986-02-08 & MARECS-A & GEO & switching anomaly & \\  & & & Hydro-Quebec & \\  & & & province blackout & \\  & & & (Canada), about 6 & \\
1989-03 & transformers & ground & million people without electricity for over 9 h; New Jersey (USA) & GICs \\  & & & transformer damage & \\
1994-01-20 & Intelsat & GEO & corrected loss of attitude control &? \\  & Anik E-1 & GEO & corrected loss of attitude control & deep dielectric charging \\  & & & hard failure of momentum wheel & \\
1994-01-21 & Anik E-2 & GEO & control, returned to service & \\  & & & 6–8 months later & \\
1997-01-11 & Telstar 40 & GEO & spacecraft failure & deep dielectric charging, GS, SEEs \\
1998-05-19 & Galaxy 4 & GEO & altitude control failure, backup failed, lost from service multiple avionics &? \\  & & & system failures; charge & \\
2003-10-25 & ADEOS-II & Sun-synchronous & particle radiation exposure; solar panel failure; loss & multiple avionics system failure \\  & & & electricity blackout in & \\
2003-10-30 & power grid & ground & Sweden, about 50,000 & GICs \\  & & & people for 10s minutes & \\  & & & 10 satellites lost & \\
2003-10/11 & various & various & operational service; &? \\  & & & 47 satellites & \\  & & & reported anomalies & \\  & & & civilian GPS receivers & \\  & & & in the Sun-lit & \\
2006-12-06 & GPS receivers & ground & hemisphere had & radio blackout \\  & & & severely affected & \\  & & & performance & \\
2010-04-05 & Galaxy 15 & GEO & solar panel track failure; temporary loss severely disturbed air-traffic control radar signals in Sweden, Norway and Belgium loss of 38/49 satellites &? \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: A list of known satellite/ground-based failures: date (the format yyyy-mm-dd is used here and also in the text); satellite name or type of infrastructure; orbit or location; type of the anomaly; probable cause for the anomaly. The majority of the previous research on the Starlink failure focuses on evaluating the increase in the neutral density at the spacecraft orbit of 210 km. These studies use observational data [62] and empirical [59] or physics-based models [57; 58; 60] to test in more detail the performance of the simulations and forecasts currently in use. In summary, the studies all point towards an increased atmospheric drag due to the enhanced neutral density in the thermosphere. However, a different magnitude of the enhancement is reported by the different teams, ranging from 20-30% [59; 61] at the lowest end, 50% [60], 40-60% [62], 50-125% [58], with up to \(\sim\)150% [57] as the highest reported value. The increased atmospheric drag described above is the primary suspect for the notable Starlink failure. In addition, an increased EUV irradiance months prior to the storm [59], emissions from long-duration SFs [60], as well as radiation exposure due to solar energetic particles might also be contributing factors to the satellite failure.