Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Stratospheric Polar Vortex Disruption and Ozone Depletion from Huge Increase in Satellite Re-Entry’s
We had over 525 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites reenter the Earth's atmosphere in the last 6 months or so. A decade or so ago, the numbers were at least 10 times lower.
Problem is, these satellites deposit lots of metals in the upper atmosphere about 80 km high and when gravity pulls these metals to lower levels, namely about 40 km or so where the ozone layer is, they act as catalysts to destroy ozone.
Since it can take 30 years for them to fall downwards to the ozone regions, there is a large time lag to destroy the ozone. So when the ozone layer collapses in several decades, do not be surprised. At least you will know why.
Imagine one of your plastic bottles going into the ocean 30 years ago. Unfortunately, the plastic does not chemically break down, and mechanical abrasion wears it down into smaller and smaller microplastics and then nanoplastics over several decades, the latter get into your brain and now comprise about 0.5% of the human brain. With plastic production skyrocketing since this bottle became nanoplastic particles, you can see how deadly the lag time is. When our brains get over 1% plastic, we can turn us into demented zombies.
Lag time is deadly.
With metals going into the mesosphere and settling to the stratosphere and troposphere, they change the chemistry of the atmosphere and the radiation balance. This changes the Stratospheric Polar Vortex, and shifts downward to affect jet stream waves, and extreme weather events on the surface.
I chat about all these things...
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support the continuance of my videos on YouTube connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Image: The Great Starlink Reentry Event: 525 satellite reentries in just over 6 months
spaceweather.com/images2025/04aug25/gsre2.png
Full article: The Great Starlink Reentry Event:
spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=05&month=08&year=2025
Animation showing the Starlink Satellite Constellation, or 8,000 odd satellites
heavens-above.com/StarLink.aspx
Heavens Above link showing copious satellite information:
heavens-above.com/?lat=0&lng=0&loc=Unspecified&alt=0&tz=UCT
Peer-reviewed paper: Potential Ozone Depletion From Satellite Demise During Atmospheric Reentry in the Era of Mega-Constellations:
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024GL109280
Good graphics on Earth's atmospheric layers:
flightdeckfriend.com/what-are-the-different-layers-of-the-atmosphere
noaa.gov/jetstream/atmosphere/layers-of-atmosphere
Wikipedia page: The Kessler Syndrome
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome
Peer-reviewed paper: Metals from spacecraft reentry in stratospheric aerosol particles:
pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.2313374120
Peer-reviewed paper: Investigating the Potential Atmospheric Accumulation and Radiative Impact of the Coming Increase in Satellite Reentry Frequency
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024JD042442
Abstract
Construction of numerous satellite mega-constellations in the low Earth orbit (LEO) (300–2,000 km) is projected over the coming decades. Estimates suggest that the number of satellites in an LEO could exceed 60,000 by 2040. The increase in the annual mass flux of anthropogenic material into the upper atmosphere as a result of maintaining these mega-constellations could rival the natural occurring meteoric mass flux. Little is known about the aerosols that will be produced by reentry vaporization, which makes estimating the associated impacts on climate and ozone difficult. Aluminum is a primary satellite component that will likely be emitted during reentry vaporization. In this study we simulate a reentry emission of 10 Gg/yr, assuming that all aerosols released is aluminum oxide (Al2O3). This level of Al2O3 emission is consistent with expected mega-constellation growth by 2040. We investigate how the location of atmospheric accumulation, aerosol size distribution, and radiative properties of reentry Al2O3 impacts the middle-to-upper atmosphere. We find that depending on reentry latitude and aerosol size distribution, a 20–40-Gg stratospheric burden of Al2O3 aerosols accumulates poleward of 30 N/S between 10 and 30 km. Small but statistically significant changes in mesospheric heating rates lead to 1.5 K-temperature anomalies in the mesosphere and the stratosphere at Southern Hemisphere high latitudes. These temperature anomalies are accompanied by a 10% reduction in wind speed in the Southern Hemisphere polar vortex, leading to a weaker springtime ozone hole. Some reentry scenarios also experience a strengthening of the Northern Hemisphere polar vortex.
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support the continuance of my videos on YouTube connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Stratospheric Polar Vortex Disruption and Ozone Depletion from Huge Increase in Satellite Re-Entry’s
We had over 525 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites reenter the Earth's atmosphere in the last 6 months or so. A decade or so ago, the numbers were at least 10 times lower.
Problem is, these satellites deposit lots of metals in the upper atmosphere about 80 km high and when gravity pulls these metals to lower levels, namely about 40 km or so where the ozone layer is, they act as catalysts to destroy ozone.
Since it can take 30 years for them to fall downwards to the ozone regions, there is a large time lag to destroy the ozone. So when the ozone layer collapses in several decades, do not be surprised. At least you will know why.
Imagine one of your plastic bottles going into the ocean 30 years ago. Unfortunately, the plastic does not chemically break down, and mechanical abrasion wears it down into smaller and smaller microplastics and then nanoplastics over several decades, the latter get into your brain and now comprise about 0.5% of the human brain. With plastic production skyrocketing since this bottle became nanoplastic particles, you can see how deadly the lag time is. When our brains get over 1% plastic, we can turn us into demented zombies.
Lag time is deadly.
With metals going into the mesosphere and settling to the stratosphere and troposphere, they change the chemistry of the atmosphere and the radiation balance. This changes the Stratospheric Polar Vortex, and shifts downward to affect jet stream waves, and extreme weather events on the surface.
I chat about all these things...
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support the continuance of my videos on YouTube connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Image: The Great Starlink Reentry Event: 525 satellite reentries in just over 6 months
spaceweather.com/images2025/04aug25/gsre2.png
Full article: The Great Starlink Reentry Event:
spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=05&month=08&year=2025
Animation showing the Starlink Satellite Constellation, or 8,000 odd satellites
heavens-above.com/StarLink.aspx
Heavens Above link showing copious satellite information:
heavens-above.com/?lat=0&lng=0&loc=Unspecified&alt=0&tz=UCT
Peer-reviewed paper: Potential Ozone Depletion From Satellite Demise During Atmospheric Reentry in the Era of Mega-Constellations:
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024GL109280
Good graphics on Earth's atmospheric layers:
flightdeckfriend.com/what-are-the-different-layers-of-the-atmosphere
noaa.gov/jetstream/atmosphere/layers-of-atmosphere
Wikipedia page: The Kessler Syndrome
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome
Peer-reviewed paper: Metals from spacecraft reentry in stratospheric aerosol particles:
pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.2313374120
Peer-reviewed paper: Investigating the Potential Atmospheric Accumulation and Radiative Impact of the Coming Increase in Satellite Reentry Frequency
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024JD042442
Abstract
Construction of numerous satellite mega-constellations in the low Earth orbit (LEO) (300–2,000 km) is projected over the coming decades. Estimates suggest that the number of satellites in an LEO could exceed 60,000 by 2040. The increase in the annual mass flux of anthropogenic material into the upper atmosphere as a result of maintaining these mega-constellations could rival the natural occurring meteoric mass flux. Little is known about the aerosols that will be produced by reentry vaporization, which makes estimating the associated impacts on climate and ozone difficult. Aluminum is a primary satellite component that will likely be emitted during reentry vaporization. In this study we simulate a reentry emission of 10 Gg/yr, assuming that all aerosols released is aluminum oxide (Al2O3). This level of Al2O3 emission is consistent with expected mega-constellation growth by 2040. We investigate how the location of atmospheric accumulation, aerosol size distribution, and radiative properties of reentry Al2O3 impacts the middle-to-upper atmosphere. We find that depending on reentry latitude and aerosol size distribution, a 20–40-Gg stratospheric burden of Al2O3 aerosols accumulates poleward of 30 N/S between 10 and 30 km. Small but statistically significant changes in mesospheric heating rates lead to 1.5 K-temperature anomalies in the mesosphere and the stratosphere at Southern Hemisphere high latitudes. These temperature anomalies are accompanied by a 10% reduction in wind speed in the Southern Hemisphere polar vortex, leading to a weaker springtime ozone hole. Some reentry scenarios also experience a strengthening of the Northern Hemisphere polar vortex.
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support the continuance of my videos on YouTube connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
