# Impact of Mega Constellations on Geospace Safety
## 3 Impact of Starlink on Environmental Fluxes in Earth's low-orbit Space  
For low-orbiting satellites, mega constellations lead to significant changes in the flux of objects in the Earth's space environment, which is responsible for the change in collision probability and is fundamental to the satellite avoidance strategy. This paper employs a heat map to illustrate the flux change visually. The top view of the heat map helps us to determine which region of the flux is significantly affected, making it easier to judge the pattern of flux change. Figure 5 represents the heat map of the flux distribution of object height and impact velocity (Alt-V), the top of each satellite flux heat map is the flux distribution without Starlink, and the bottom is the flux distribution considering Starlink. The figure on the left represents the top view of the heat map, which is a magnified representation of the projection of the heat map in the Alt-V plane, from which it can be more effectively observed that considering Starlink before and after for that region has a greater impact. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Orbital Planes** & **72** & **72** & **36** & **6** & **4** \\ \hline Satellites per plane & 22 & 22 & 20 & 58 & 43 \\ Altitude & 550 km & 540 km & 570 km & 560 km & 560 km \\ Inclination & 53\({}^{\circ}\) & 53.2\({}^{\circ}\) & 70\({}^{\circ}\) & 97.6\({}^{\circ}\) & 97.6\({}^{\circ}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Starlink Deployment Summary. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Name** & **PERIOD** & **Inclination** & **Apogee** & **Perigee** & **Mass** & **Width** & **Height** & **Depth** \\ \hline JILIN-01-01 & & 95.38 min & 97.54\({}^{\circ}\) & 547 km & 527 km & 230 kg & 0.5 m & 1.1 m & 0.5 m \\ GAOPEN 2D & 94.43 min & 97.43\({}^{\circ}\) & 500 km & 481 km & 10 kg & 0.2 m & 0.3 m & 0.2 m \\ YAOGAN-35 C & 94.54 min & 35\({}^{\circ}\) & 497 km & 496 km & 300 kg & 2.5 m & 2.5 m & 2.5 m \\ \Figure 5a,b shows the comparison of Alt-V flux variation of JILIN-01-01 OAGFEN 2D satellite, where the highest point becomes 3.258 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-6}\)/m\({}^{2}\)/yr at 548.399 km and 11.5 km/s due to the addition of the Mega Constellation Starlink, which is 27.96 times higher than without the addition, as can be seen from the top view. The influence of Starlink is regionalized, being more pronounced for altitude fluxes in the 540 km-550 km range and velocity fluxes in the 14-16 km/s range. Figure 5c,d shows the comparison of Alt-V flux variation of CORVUS BC5 satellite, which has similar orbital altitude and similar inclination with GAOFEN. The difference is that their satellite masses are very different, the space flux is mainly concentrated between 480-500 km, 8-16 km/s without Starlink, and the distribution is more even; the maximum value is 8.394 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-8}\)/m\({}^{2}\)/yr at 481 km and 14.5 km/s. After adding Starlink, the space flux is concentrated between 495-500 km and 6-16 km/s, with a more concentrated distribution, and its maximum value becomes 4.647 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-5}\)/m\({}^{2}\)/yr at 499.452 km and 13.5 km/s, and the latter value becomes 553.6 times the former value. The flux variation of CORVUS BC5 is more concentrated in contrast to the flux variation of GAOFEN, and there is a relationship between this variation and the volume of both. Figure 5e,f shows the comparison of Alt-V flux variation of YAOGAN-35C satellite. The biggest difference between this satellite and GAOFEN and CORVUS BC5 is the variation of its inclination angle; before considering Starlink, the spatial flux of YAOGAN-35C is evenly distributed in the range of 475-520 km and 8-15 km/s, indicating that the size is more prominent. The maximum value is 1.871 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-8}\)/m\({}^{2}\)/yr at 505 km, 15.5 km/s. After considering Starlink, the spatial flux distribution becomes concentrated, mainly in the range of 495-510 km, 7-16 km/s, and the prominent values are extremely concentrated and vary greatly.