Criticism of "Starlink", SpaceX's satellite-supported Internet, has been around for a long time.
Now the meteorologists are also speaking up and complaining.
Frankfurt – The “Starlink” satellites from the private space company SpaceX have been criticized since they were first launched in 2019.
Almost 3500 functioning satellites are now orbiting the earth and ensure fast internet in many corners of the world.
But now criticism from meteorology is loud.
Weather researchers are disturbed by the numerous "Starlink" terminals that make it possible to receive fast satellite Internet on earth, as
fr.de
reports.
"Weather satellites are less able to measure the weather in places where people use a Starlink dish," satellite researcher Ad Stoffelen from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) tells Dutch
portal
NU.nl.
"And there are more and more."
"Starlink" dishes cause problems with weather forecasting
Stoffel describes the problem of meteorology as follows: "The signal from a Starlink dish can often be seen on our weather maps as a bright spot, as if there was a lot of water vapor in the air." The background: weather satellites measure the natural radiation of water vapor.
"This radiation is almost equivalent to the radio signal from a Starlink dish," says the researcher.
Meteorologists are particularly interested in the air above the seas and the North Pole.
But it is precisely in these remote places that the "Starlink" Internet is being used more and more - it is used, for example, on cruise ships or by researchers in the Antarctic.
There are no ordinary Internet connections there, which is why the Internet from Earth orbit comes at just the right time.
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The dishes needed to receive the "Starlink" Internet interfere with meteorological satellites.
(archive photo)
© IMAGO/Reginald Mathalone
Interfere with "Starlink" terminals – specialist thinks about drastic measures
The meteorology is severely disturbed by the "Starlink" terminals and Stoffel is already considering drastic measures: "We may have to exclude locations with a Starlink dish from our measurements," he muses.
However, as the expert knows, there is a problem: "The more areas that are excluded, the more imprecise the weather forecast becomes." International experts are also concerned.
The development was also a topic at the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society in Denver.
So far, the “Starlink” satellites have been a thorn in the side of astronomy in particular: newly launched “Starlink” satellites can be seen brightly in the sky for some time and repeatedly cause supposed UFO reports.
Researchers have already sounded the alarm that the bright satellites are disrupting their work – among other things, the important search for potentially dangerous asteroids at dusk is being impaired by the "Starlinks".
Another point of criticism is the situation in orbit: In orbit, it is full thanks to the numerous satellites - and SpaceX wants to send tens of thousands more satellites into orbit.
Experts fear that the current development could lead to more space debris and collisions in orbit.
The discarded satellites could lead to another problem: they could introduce a lot of aluminum into the earth's atmosphere and thus damage the ozone layer, among other things.
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