Monday, November 21, 2016

How sun-synchronous orbits differ from geo-synchronous?

Geo-synchronous orbits are those orbits in which object revolves in the same time as taken by earth rotation on its axis. Hence, an object in geo-synchronous will always appear stationary at all times from earth. A geo-stationary orbit is a geo-synchronous orbit exactly above equator. With fixed latitude & eccentricity, satellites placed in geo-synchronous orbit will give easy information on weather & communication without monitoring the antenna for signal every single time.

On the other hand, a sun-synchronous orbit faces sun at all times in such a way that an object in its orbit appears ascending or descending from earth at same position at same local time every day. This is because for an object in sun-synchronous orbit, surface illumination angle matches mean solar time also sometimes called as sidereal day of earth. Since it is always lighted, satellite in sun-synchronous orbit is best-suited for Earth observation purposes such as Remote sensing giving a clear & bright view of earth at all times from its imagery.

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