Geostationary satellites
Weather geostationary satellites are operated by EUMETSAT (Meteosat), the USA (GOES), Japan (MTSAT), China (Fengyun-2), Russia (GOMS) and India (KALPANA). They orbit in the earth's equatorial plane at a height of 38,500 km. At this height, the speed of the satellite is the same as the earth's rotation, and the satellite appears to be stationary over a certain point on the equator. This orbit allows the satellite to continually observe the same area: 42% of the earth's surface. To get global coverage you need a network of 5-6 satellites. These satellites, however, do not see the poles at all. |
