Measuring Weather Effects and Link Quality Dynamics in LEO Satellite Networks
This provides empirical insights for satellite network operators and users on weather-related performance issues, though it is incremental as it builds on existing studies with new data.
This paper tackled the problem of how weather affects link quality in LEO satellite networks, using Starlink data, and found that liquid water in the atmosphere, not general cloud presence, causes significant download throughput reductions of up to 60 MBit/s, while upload and latency remain largely unaffected.
This paper presents an empirical study of dynamic factors affecting link quality in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications, using Starlink as a case study. Over 56 days, 112 high-quality meteorological measurements in mostly 1-min intervals, co-located with a user terminal, were collected, alongside frequent network performance data. Cloud characteristics were estimated using professional weather instruments such as a ceilometer, microwave radiometer, and vision-language model on sky images. Our results show that general cloud presence does not significantly impact throughput or latency. The impact of cloud coverage rather depends on the presence of liquid water in the atmosphere, quantified by liquid water path (LWP), which correlates with notable download throughput reductions (up to 60 MBit/s), especially during rain. Upload and latency were largely unaffected. Analysis of the evolving satellite network revealed that newer satellite hardware and infrastructural upgrades also contributed to performance increases during the experiment period. These findings highlight atmospheric liquid water as the key weather-related factor affecting link quality and underscore the influence of network changes over time.