Seismoacoustic analysis of a Falcon 9 rocket stage re-entry over central Europe on 19 February 2025

Seismoacoustic analysis of a Falcon 9 rocket stage re-entry over central Europe on 19 February 2025 | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Seismoacoustic analysis of a Falcon 9 rocket stage re-entry over central Europe on 19 February 2025 Patrick Hupe, Christoph Pilger, Jelle Assink, Simon Schneider, and 8 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9570096/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 7 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract On 19 February 2025, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage re-entered the atmosphere over Ireland's west coast. It produced a sustained fireball along its trajectory across the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, northern Germany, and western Poland. Seismic and infrasound stations in the Netherlands and Germany, as well as infrasound arrays in Sweden and Norway, recorded the event. We characterise the re-entry as a line source and reproduce the trajectory using the seismoacoustic observations of more than 80 stations. The majority of the stations detected two distinct signal arrivals. We investigate the detection pattern with varying time intervals between these signals across the station networks, benefiting from both a dense seismic borehole network in the Netherlands and co-located measurements of infrasound and seismic stations. Acoustic arrivals at stations up to 150 km distance from the trajectory originate from the shock wave of the Mach cone due to the hypersonic velocity of the re-entering debris. Infrasound arrays at distances between 400 and 900 km additionally recorded signals that also reflect the west-to-east movement of the source. Allsky7 camera observations and infrasound propagation simulations utilising the UA-ICON model atmospheric representation enable the validation of the seismoacoustic characterisation of the re-entry. Co-located atmospheric lidar measurements provide valuable insight into small-scale atmospheric dynamics influencing infrasound propagation conditions.This study demonstrates that dense seismoacoustic station networks, including infrasound arrays, can provide valuable ground-based and time-constrained evidence of re-entering space debris over a wide horizontal extent. In an era of an increasing number of rocket launches and deorbiting space debris, these seismoacoustic observations can also be relevant for space agencies to re-analyse such events. Infrasound Seismoacoustics Re-entry Space Debris Rocket Launch Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviews received at journal 13 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 08 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 07 May, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 30 Apr, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 30 Apr, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 30 Apr, 2026 First submitted to journal 29 Apr, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9570096","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":637665676,"identity":"6636c683-a0df-4b0c-a04b-e60da3bebb8e","order_by":0,"name":"Patrick 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It produced a sustained fireball along its trajectory across the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, northern Germany, and western Poland. Seismic and infrasound stations in the Netherlands and Germany, as well as infrasound arrays in Sweden and Norway, recorded the event. We characterise the re-entry as a line source and reproduce the trajectory using the seismoacoustic observations of more than 80 stations. The majority of the stations detected two distinct signal arrivals. We investigate the detection pattern with varying time intervals between these signals across the station networks, benefiting from both a dense seismic borehole network in the Netherlands and co-located measurements of infrasound and seismic stations. Acoustic arrivals at stations up to 150 km distance from the trajectory originate from the shock wave of the Mach cone due to the hypersonic velocity of the re-entering debris. 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