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The Low Earth Orbit Satellite Population and Impacts of the SpaceX Starlink Constellation

  • Authors: Jonathan C. McDowell

2020 The Astrophysical Journal Letters 892 L36.

  • Provider: AAS Journals

Caption: Figure 6.

Starlink satellites visible from London (52N) in summer vs. time of night. Number above the horizon (left); number above 30° elevation (right). Vertical lines indicate the times at which the Sun reaches elevations 0°, −6°, and −12° for the ground observer. In these and subsequent figures, the separate contributions from layers A, B, and C are shown as indicated. The main contribution is from fainter layer B satellites (V ∼ 7.5; see Section 4). Nevertheless, the model suggests of the order of 25 bright layer A (V ∼ 5.5) and C (V ∼ 4.5) objects visible at high elevations at all times through the summer night with a further 75 close to the horizon.

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