{
  "abstract": "Extreme geomagnetic storms accelerate low-Earth-orbit satellite decay by inflating the thermosphere, yet the hour-scale pathway from solar-wind energy to atmospheric heating is poorly understood. Using the GNSS receiver of the NinjaSat CubeSat ( $$\\sim 500$$ km, $$97^\\circ $$ sun-synchronous), we tracked orbital altitude through solar-maximum 2024 and cross-correlated the storm-time altitude-change rate with geomagnetic indices during the two largest storms of the year. The EUV-corrected residual correlates with the polar-cap (PC) index at $$r\\gtrsim 0.8$$ , PC leading or coincident with the response by up to $$\\sim 3$$ h, as do the auroral electrojet indices AE and AL. It also correlates with the Dst index ( $$r\\approx 0.82 - 0.84$$ ), but the altitude drop precedes the Dst minimum by $$\\sim 3$$ h, attributing this to a common solar-wind driver rather than ring-current heating. XRISM ( $$31^\\circ $$ , $$\\sim 560$$ km) shows the storm-induced density enhancement reached low latitudes in May 2024 but not in October 2024, consistent with a shorter electrojet duration despite comparable peak intensity. Polar Joule heating, indexed by PC, is thus the dominant storm-time drag driver, providing a natural forecasting window of up to $$\\sim 3$$ h.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 14,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Hayato Tanaka",
      "orcid": "0009-0000-1779-9400"
    },
    {
      "name": "Takao Nakagawa",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-6660-9375"
    },
    {
      "name": "Satoshi Nozawa",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4557-1934"
    },
    {
      "name": "Toru Tamagawa",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-8801-6263"
    },
    {
      "name": "Teruaki Enoto",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-1244-3100"
    },
    {
      "name": "Takao Kitaguchi"
    },
    {
      "name": "Wataru Iwakiri",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-0207-9010"
    },
    {
      "name": "Tatehiro Mihara",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-6337-7943"
    },
    {
      "name": "Tomoshi Takeda",
      "orcid": "0009-0008-5133-9131"
    },
    {
      "name": "Naoyuki Ota",
      "orcid": "0009-0003-3872-9112"
    },
    {
      "name": "Amira Aoyama",
      "orcid": "0009-0008-3926-363X"
    },
    {
      "name": "Satoko Iwata",
      "orcid": "0009-0007-8444-3640"
    },
    {
      "name": "Takuya Takahashi"
    },
    {
      "name": "Kaede Yamasaki"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/dr7avh0gkhc87.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1038/s41598-026-72547-2",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "dr7avh0gkhc87",
  "issns": [
    "2045-2322"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-72547-2",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "3103|Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7215689849",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-72547-2_reference.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-02",
  "publisher": "Springer Science and Business Media LLC",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/dr7avh0gkhc87.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:19Z",
      "native_id": "10.1038/s41598-026-72547-2",
      "source": "crossref",
      "url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-72547-2"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "openalex:3103|Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics",
      "subfield": "general"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Hour-scale response of low-Earth-orbit satellite altitude to extreme geomagnetic storms revealed by the NinjaSat CubeSat during the 2024 solar maximum",
  "title_text": "Hour-scale response of low-Earth-orbit satellite altitude to extreme geomagnetic storms revealed by the NinjaSat CubeSat during the 2024 solar maximum",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:17:19Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/dr7avh0gkhc87",
  "venue": "Scientific Reports",
  "versions": [
    {
      "doi": "10.21203/rs.3.rs-10043461/v1",
      "pid": null,
      "relation": "preprint",
      "title": null,
      "venue": null
    }
  ]
}