Fig. 5: Ground track trajectories of objects with initial azimuths of 315° (landing left of 0° longitude) and 135° (landing right of 0° longitude), for varying initial low-elevation angles, simulated in the Python program. | npj Space Exploration

Fig. 5: Ground track trajectories of objects with initial azimuths of 315° (landing left of 0° longitude) and 135° (landing right of 0° longitude), for varying initial low-elevation angles, simulated in the Python program.

From: Uncontrolled reentry of Low Earth Orbit Decaying Objects: a hidden threat to global safety and legal frameworks

Fig. 5

The elevation threshold between reentry and orbital retention was refined through additional simulations at 10.5 km/s for azimuths of 135° and 315°. In both cases, the upper elevation limit for reentry was confirmed to be γ = −2.9°. The horizontal blue line is a simulation artifact that arises from a documented but cosmetic issue of GeoPandas (via Matplotlib) when handling cyclical longitude.

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