Dutch meteorologists say Musk's Starlink network disrupts weather forecasting

Meteorologists are very concerned about the rate at which Elon Musk is expanding his Starlink satellite network. The rapidly expanding network, with new users every day, is disrupting satellite measurements that are indispensable for accurate weather forecasts, Ad Stoffelen of the Dutch meteorological institute KNMI told NU.nl.

Starlink consists of over 4,000 satellites, which provide a fast wireless internet connection anywhere on earth. The satellites, which connect to users on earth via a Starlink dish, float at an altitude of 500 to 1,500 kilometers above the planet.

The Starlink network is amazing for people in remote areas, like on drilling platforms in the ocean or in research stations at the North Pole, where internet connections were previously unreliable, if not impossible. But every Starlink user on earth causes more disruption to the weather satellites, Stoffelen explained.

“Weather satellites are less able to measure the weather in places where people use a Starlink dish. And there are more and more of them,” Stoffelen said. “The signal from a Starlink dish can often be seen on our weather maps as a bright dot as if there is a lot of water vapor in the air.”

The weather satellites measure the natural radiation from water vapor, and that looks almost exactly the same as a radio signal between a Starlink satellite and a Starlink dish on earth. And that isn’t something that can be easily changed, Stoffelen said.

“We may need to exclude locations with a Starlink dish from our measurements,” Stoffelen said. “But the greater the number of areas excluded by Starlink dishes, the less accurate the weather forecast becomes.”

International meteorologists raised these concerns at an annual conference in Denver in the United States. They worry that the problems will only get worse as more satellite networks are installed. Elon Musk and Starlink have yet to comment.