TLE Satellite Data

Arc Cloud supports native ingestion of Two-Line Element (TLE) satellite orbital data, making it straightforward to build satellite tracking and space situational awareness applications.

info

TLE ingestion is available on all paid tiers.

Overview

TLE (Two-Line Element) sets describe satellite orbits and are the standard format published by NORAD and CelesTrak. Arc parses TLE data, extracts orbital parameters, and computes derived metrics automatically.

Ingestion

Streaming Write

Send individual TLE sets in real-time:

curl -X POST https://<instance>.arc.<region>.basekick.net/api/v1/write/tle \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  -H "X-Arc-Database: satellites" \
  -d 'ISS (ZARYA)
1 25544U 98067A   24001.50000000  .00016717  00000-0  10270-3 0  9023
2 25544  51.6400 208.9163 0006703  30.1579 330.0004 15.49560532999999'

Bulk Import

Import large TLE datasets (up to 500 MB):

curl -X POST https://<instance>.arc.<region>.basekick.net/api/v1/import/tle \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  -H "X-Arc-Database: satellites" \
  --data-binary @celestrak-catalog.tle

Supports gzip compression:

curl -X POST https://<instance>.arc.<region>.basekick.net/api/v1/import/tle \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  -H "X-Arc-Database: satellites" \
  -H "Content-Encoding: gzip" \
  --data-binary @catalog.tle.gz

Schema

Arc automatically creates a tle measurement with:

Tags:

Tag	Description
norad_id	NORAD catalog number
object_name	Satellite name
classification	U (unclassified), C (classified), S (secret)
international_designator	Launch identifier
orbit_type	LEO, MEO, GEO, HEO, etc.

Fields (Orbital Elements):

Field	Description
inclination	Orbital inclination (degrees)
raan	Right ascension of ascending node
eccentricity	Orbital eccentricity
arg_perigee	Argument of perigee
mean_anomaly	Mean anomaly
mean_motion	Revolutions per day
bstar	Drag coefficient

Derived Metrics (computed automatically):

Field	Description
semi_major_axis_km	Semi-major axis in km
orbital_period_min	Orbital period in minutes
apogee_km	Apogee altitude in km
perigee_km	Perigee altitude in km

Querying

-- Find all LEO satellites
SELECT object_name, perigee_km, apogee_km, inclination
FROM satellites.tle
WHERE orbit_type = 'LEO'
ORDER BY time DESC
LIMIT 100;

-- Track ISS orbital changes over time
SELECT time, inclination, mean_motion, apogee_km, perigee_km
FROM satellites.tle
WHERE norad_id = '25544'
ORDER BY time DESC;

See the Arc TLE documentation for the full specification and advanced options.