Geostationary satellite

geostationary satellite

A satellite in a west-to-east orbit at an altitude of 35 786 km (19 600 n mi) above the equator.

At this altitude, it circles the axis of Earth once every 24 h, making its speed in orbit synchronous with Earth's rotation. A geostationary orbit is geosynchronous, but it is also required to have zero inclination angle (orbital plane coincides with Earth's equatorial plane) and zero eccentricity (a perfectly circular orbit). Geostationary satellites (such as GOES, Meteosat, INSAT, Fengyun, GEO-KOMPSAT-2A, and Himawari) remain essentially stationary over a given geographical point above the equator.

Japan Meteorological Agency, 2020: Imager (AHI). Accessed 29 May 2020. Available at https://www.data.jma.go.jp/mscweb/en/index.html.

European Space Agency, 2020: GEO-KOMPSAT-2. Accessed 29 May 2020. Available at https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/content/-/article/geo-kompsat-2.

European Space Agency, 2020: FY-4. Accessed 29 May 2020. Available at https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/f/fy-4.

World Meteorological Society, 2020: Satellite: INSAT-3D. Accessed 29 May 2020. Available at https://www.wmo-sat.info/oscar/satellites/view/193.

Term edited 29 May 2020.

The path that a satellite follows in its motion through space relative to the attracting body.