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SpaceX's Starlink May Be Keeping the Ozone From Healing, Research Finds

Abstract from the paper in the article:

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024GL109280

Large constellations of small satellites will significantly increase the number of objects orbiting the Earth. Satellites burn up at the end of service life during reentry, generating aluminum oxides as the main byproduct. These are known catalysts for chlorine activation that depletes ozone in the stratosphere. We present the first atomic-scale molecular dynamics simulation study to resolve the oxidation process of the satellite's aluminum structure during mesospheric reentry, and investigate the ozone depletion potential from aluminum oxides. We find that the demise of a typical 250-kg satellite can generate around 30 kg of aluminum oxide nanoparticles, which may endure for decades in the atmosphere. Aluminum oxide compounds generated by the entire population of satellites reentering the atmosphere in 2022 are estimated at around 17 metric tons. Reentry scenarios involving mega-constellations point to over 360 metric tons of aluminum oxide compounds per year, which can lead to significant ozone depletion.

PS: wooden satellites can help mitigate this https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01456-z

FJT ,

Ozone hoax just like global warming

Burn_The_Right ,

It's some small comfort that a conservative's ability to construct a complete sentence is matched by their ability to formulate a complete thought.

jorp ,

Only you know the truth!

Snowpix ,
@Snowpix@lemmy.ca avatar

Y'know... it's better to let everyone think you're an idiot than to prove everyone right by saying something this stupid.

noktastrigo ,

In a difference timeline this would be obvious sarcasm. We are not in that timeline.

ugjka ,
@ugjka@lemmy.world avatar

Enjoy your skincancer

Buddahriffic ,

Next thing they are going to say asbestos is dangerous even though I've touched it before without dying!

And in a recent survey, 9 out of 10 tobacco executives say, "Don't worry about safety, just have another smooth tasting premium filtered cigarette!"

iAvicenna ,
@iAvicenna@lemmy.world avatar

ah but it helps Elon make money (maybe?) and Elon knows what is best for us, so that is fine

Beaver ,
@Beaver@lemmy.ca avatar

Another thing Elon is screwing up on

Aqarius ,

It's like he became the opposite of King Midas.

Murdoc ,

I don't know, maybe it is like Midas. The things he touches turn into something coveted, and therefore valuable, but also of little to no practical use, just like gold.

StaySquared ,

How about.. HAARP? I would place my focus on HAARP.

bbuez ,

What about it?

turmacar ,

As fun as it might be to harp (ha) on them. It's unlikely that a 30 year old atmospheric research station is a bond style earthquake machine.

Rhaedas ,

At least the article came with the numbers. Given what I regularly read about all the pollutants we daily pump into the atmosphere, the numbers in this article for the materials being atomized is...well, they're very small in scale.

Basically, if a few hundred tons per year is hurting the ozone (and other things), just imagine what the billions of tons per year of emissions does.

Gsus4 OP , (edited )
@Gsus4@programming.dev avatar

The point here is not that aluminum oxide "pollutes" on its own, it is that it "speeds up" the harmful reaction between ozone and any chlorine (like CFC) "pollutants" up there without being consumed, so it keeps acting over 30 years. It makes all the pollutants you mention "more effective" at depleting ozone.

Rhaedas ,

I didn't see a mention in the paper on what amount the bump up would be with the maximum amount of AlO2 distributed in the layers of the atmosphere where the reactions would occur. When emissions are in the trillions of tons, I wonder if it would even be measurable.

Gsus4 OP , (edited )
@Gsus4@programming.dev avatar

When emissions are in the trillions of tons, I wonder if it would even be measurable.

emission of what? There aren't trillions of tons of Chlorine in the stratosphere (that's what interferes with O3) being pumped into the atmosphere. Are you thinking of CO2?

I doubt anybody can give a confident answer today about the value of the effect that a kg of Al2O3 can have per ton of atmosphere at ozone layer height, because that would involve not just doing what they did in the paper, but also figuring out what "shape" the Al2O3 particles have to know what their adsorption surface would be, for e.g. zeolites this can be 16m2 per gram. e.g. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/earth-extraterrestrial-space-dust-weight-meteorite but maybe it can be simply extrapolated from analogous metallic meteorite dust samples :/

Rhaedas ,

Carbon monoxide also contribute to ozone breakdown, and there are additional manmade substances similar to CFCs with chlorine and bromine that are still leaked. Environmental changes in the Antarctic also can increase ozone depletion as well as longer lasting cold air in the stratosphere (observed in 2020 in the Arctic). The mention of emissions was just to suggest that smaller reactions can get lost in all the other problems we have created, although wildfire increases are raising CO.

i_have_no_enemies ,

futurism article... seriously?

Gsus4 OP , (edited )
@Gsus4@programming.dev avatar

There was the scientific article and the abstract in the body of the post if you wanted to read it, wtf more do you want?

Fedizen ,

Thanks Elon

neclimdul ,

Buy a ticket to mars. Problem solved.

partial_accumen ,

Its good to keep an eye out for new sources of pollution, but the possible ozone depletion from satellites burning up is a tiny tiny fraction of what we're doing on Earth right now for pollutants.

autotldr Bot ,

This is the best summary I could come up with:

While researchers have largely focused on the pollutants being released by rockets as they launch, we've only begun to understand the implications of having thousands of retired and malfunctioning satellites burn up in the atmosphere.

"Only in recent years have people started to think this might become a problem," said coauthor and University of Southern California astronautics researcher Joseph Wang in a statement.

Since it's practically impossible to get accurate readings from the kind of pollutants satellites release as they scream back through the atmosphere, scientists can only estimate their effects on the surrounding environment.

By studying how common metals used in the construction of satellites interact with each other, the team estimated that the presence of aluminum increased in the atmosphere by almost 30 percent in 2022 alone.

They found that a 550-pound satellite generates roughly 66 pounds of aluminum oxide nanoparticles during reentry, which would take up to 30 years to drift down into the stratosphere.

"The environmental impacts from the reentry of satellites are currently poorly understood," the researchers note in their paper.

The original article contains 371 words, the summary contains 176 words. Saved 53%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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