The impact of electron precipitation on Earth's thermospheric NO production and the drag of LEO satellites

Scherf, Manuel; Krauss, Sandro; Tsurikov, Grigory; Strasser, Andreas; Shematovich, Valery; Bisikalo, Dmitry; Lammer, Helmut; Güdel, Manuel; Möstl, Christian

doi:10.5194/angeo-44-209-2026

Articles | Volume 44, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-44-209-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-44-209-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 44, issue 1

Regular paper

|

16 Mar 2026

Regular paper |

| 16 Mar 2026

The impact of electron precipitation on Earth's thermospheric NO production and the drag of LEO satellites

Manuel Scherf, Sandro Krauss, Grigory Tsurikov, Andreas Strasser, Valery Shematovich, Dmitry Bisikalo, Helmut Lammer, Manuel Güdel, and Christian Möstl

Data sets

Simulation data for Scherf et al., The impact of electron precipitation on Earth's thermospheric NO production and the drag of LEO satellites Manuel Scherf et al. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.31389760.v2

Short summary

We model the structure of the thermosphere for two space weather events that affected satellite orbits. Based on the Sun's irradiation, we simulate atmospheric density profiles and feed them into a model that calculates the influence of precipitating electrons on nitrogen oxide production in the atmosphere. Our results underscore the importance of considering both solar irradiance and particle precipitation to understand and predict space weather effects on the atmosphere and satellite orbits.