TLE (Satellite Orbital Data)

Ingest satellite orbital data in the standard Two-Line Element (TLE) format used by Space-Track.org, CelesTrak, and ground station pipelines.

Available since v26.02.1

TLE ingestion and import are available starting Arc v26.02.1 (February 2026).

Overview

Arc provides native TLE parsing with two ingestion modes:

• Streaming (POST /api/v1/write/tle) -- for continuous TLE feeds, cron jobs, and real-time updates
• Bulk import (POST /api/v1/import/tle) -- for historical backfill from Space-Track.org exports or CelesTrak catalog dumps

TLE data is parsed into a configurable measurement (default: satellite_tle) with orbital elements as fields and satellite identifiers as tags. Derived orbital metrics (semi-major axis, period, apogee, perigee, orbit classification) are computed automatically.

TLE Format

Arc supports both 3-line (with satellite name) and 2-line (no name) TLE formats, including mixed-format files.

3-line format:

ISS (ZARYA)
1 25544U 98067A   24001.50000000  .00016717  00000-0  10270-3 0  9001
2 25544  51.6400 100.2000 0007420  35.5000 324.6000 15.49560000    09

2-line format:

1 25544U 98067A   24001.50000000  .00016717  00000-0  10270-3 0  9001
2 25544  51.6400 100.2000 0007420  35.5000 324.6000 15.49560000    09

Headers

Header	Required	Default	Description
Authorization	Yes	-	Bearer $ARC_TOKEN
X-Arc-Database	No	default	Target database
X-Arc-Measurement	No	satellite_tle	Target measurement name

Streaming Ingestion

For continuous TLE feeds, cron jobs, and real-time updates from ground stations.

Endpoint

POST /api/v1/write/tle

Example

curl -X POST "http://localhost:8000/api/v1/write/tle" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ARC_TOKEN" \
  -H "X-Arc-Database: satellites" \
  --data-binary @stations.tle

Returns 204 No Content on success.

Custom Measurement

curl -X POST "http://localhost:8000/api/v1/write/tle" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ARC_TOKEN" \
  -H "X-Arc-Database: satellites" \
  -H "X-Arc-Measurement: iss_orbital_elements" \
  --data-binary @iss.tle

Statistics

curl "http://localhost:8000/api/v1/write/tle/stats" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ARC_TOKEN"

Bulk Import

For historical backfill from Space-Track.org exports or CelesTrak catalog dumps.

Endpoint

POST /api/v1/import/tle

Example

curl -X POST "http://localhost:8000/api/v1/import/tle" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ARC_TOKEN" \
  -H "X-Arc-Database: satellites" \
  -F "file=@catalog.tle"

Response

{
  "status": "ok",
  "result": {
    "database": "satellites",
    "measurement": "satellite_tle",
    "satellite_count": 28000,
    "rows_imported": 28000,
    "duration_ms": 1250
  }
}

Schema

The default measurement satellite_tle has the following schema:

Tags

Column	Description
norad_id	NORAD catalog number
object_name	Satellite name (from line 0 of 3-line format)
classification	U (unclassified), C (classified), S (secret)
international_designator	Launch year + piece identifier
orbit_type	Derived: LEO, MEO, GEO, HEO

Fields

Column	Type	Description
inclination_deg	float	Orbital inclination (degrees)
raan_deg	float	Right ascension of ascending node (degrees)
eccentricity	float	Orbital eccentricity
arg_perigee_deg	float	Argument of perigee (degrees)
mean_anomaly_deg	float	Mean anomaly (degrees)
mean_motion_rev_day	float	Revolutions per day
bstar	float	BSTAR drag coefficient
semi_major_axis_km	float	Derived: semi-major axis (km)
period_min	float	Derived: orbital period (minutes)
apogee_km	float	Derived: apogee altitude (km)
perigee_km	float	Derived: perigee altitude (km)

Example Queries

-- All LEO satellites sorted by orbital period
SELECT object_name, orbit_type, period_min, perigee_km, apogee_km
FROM satellite_tle
WHERE orbit_type = 'LEO'
ORDER BY period_min;

-- Track orbital decay for a specific satellite
SELECT object_name, time, mean_motion_rev_day, perigee_km
FROM satellite_tle
WHERE norad_id = '25544'
ORDER BY time DESC
LIMIT 100;

-- Count satellites by orbit type
SELECT orbit_type, COUNT(DISTINCT norad_id) as satellite_count
FROM satellite_tle
GROUP BY orbit_type
ORDER BY satellite_count DESC;

Features

• Pure Go parser -- no external dependencies
• Mixed format support -- handles both 2-line and 3-line TLE in the same file
• Gzip support -- compressed payloads auto-detected via magic bytes
• Checksum validation -- graceful skip on bad entries (warnings collected, not fatal)
• Derived metrics -- semi-major axis, period, apogee, perigee, and orbit classification computed automatically
• RBAC-aware -- write permissions checked per measurement
• Cluster routing -- writes forwarded to writer nodes automatically
• 500 MB size limit on bulk imports

Performance

TLE ingestion uses a typed columnar fast path that bypasses the generic []interface{} intermediary. The parser operates directly on []byte input with contiguous record allocation and single-pass typed column construction, achieving ~3.5M records/sec on commodity hardware.