Comparing Meteor and Rocket Atmospheric Emissions and Their Effects to Space Debris Reentries: Towards Understanding the Atmospheric Impact of Space Debris Disposal

Space debris, including rocket bodies and defunct satellites, are often removed from orbit via atmospheric reentry. This method of disposal has been used since 1957, and recently has been the central recommendation of several national and international space debris decommissioning policies and guidelines. However, the atmospheric consequences of repetitive space debris reentries and subsequent by-products are not well understood. As a step towards understanding the atmospheric impact of space debris reentry, this paper compares the characteristics of meteor and space debris atmospheric entry to conjecture hypothetical consequences of space debris reentry from atmospheric effects of meteor ablation products. Atmospheric effects from rocket launches and other atmospheric trends are also considered. Aircraft atmospheric effects are found to be irrelevant. In sum, this paper explores ice nucleation, high altitude cloud formation, ozone destruction, sulfur chemistry interactions, radiative forcing, atmospheric contraction and interference with mesospheric measurements as potential consequences of space debris reentry. Out of these atmospheric consequences, radiative forcing from space debris aluminum, interactions with high altitude cloud formation and possible consequences on measurement techniques of the upper atmosphere appear to be feasible consequences of space debris reentries. In contrast, effects on upper ionospheric behavior, thermosphere contraction and ������-driven ozone depletion may not have a significant impact. This analysis concludes with recommendations for future work to explore the spatial distribution of space debris reentry particles over time, 0-D modeling of high altitude aluminum and metal chemistry, and measurements of space debris ablation species and particle sizes in laboratories as next steps to characterize the atmospheric consequences of space debris reentry.