From Shooting Stars to Satellites and Contrails: Leveraging Meteor Cameras for Space Sustainability and Climate Action

by Dr Denis Vida (Western University)

Wednesday Sep 10, 2025, 1:00 PM → 2:00 PM Canada/Eastern

Surface Facility/1-121 - Fraser Duncan Auditorium (SNOLAB)

The rapid expansion of megaconstellations in low-Earth orbit (LEO) demands innovative solutions for space traffic management. Traditional telescopic systems struggle to keep up with the rise in the number of satellites, especially those operated by non-cooperative nations. Our repurposed meteor cameras provide a groundbreaking alternative, tracking over 2,000 unique satellites nightly and detecting nearly all active objects larger than 30 cm in LEO. This technology also addresses climate change by observing aircraft contrails—artificial cirrus clouds that contribute 2% of total anthropogenic climate impacts. By enabling real-time monitoring of contrail formation and feeding this data into meteorological models, we can forecast humidity at flight altitudes and reroute aircraft to prevent contrails. This strategy requires only ~0.1% additional cost for flight adjustments, offering a transformative and cost-efficient solution to mitigate the climate impacts of aviation.