TYPES OF SATELLITE

ORBITS
MODULE-1 (SOC-BEC515D)

Presented By
Prof. Aditi Shukla
ECE Department
 Types of Satellite Orbits

• satellites travel around Earth along predetermined repetitive paths

called orbits.
• The orbit is characterized by its elements or parameters.
• The orbital elements of a particular satellite depend upon its intended
application.
• The satellite orbits can be classified on the basis of:
1. Orientation of the orbital plane
2. Eccentricity
3. Distance from Earth
1.Orientation of the Orbital Plane
• The orbital plane of the satellite can have various orientations with
respect to the equatorial plane of Earth.
• The angle between the two planes is called the angle of inclination of
the satellite.
• On this basis, the orbits can be classified as:
(a) Equatorial orbits
(b) Polar orbits
(c) Inclined orbits.
Equatorial orbits and Polar Orbit

• In the case of an equatorial orbit,

the angle of inclination is zero,i.e.
the orbital plane of the satellite
coincides with the Earth’s
equatorial plane (Figure 2.32).
• A satellite in the equatorial orbit
has a latitude of 0◦.
• For an angle of inclination equal
to 90◦, the satellite is said to be in
the polar orbit (Figure 2.33).
Prograde orbit
• For an angle of inclination
between 0◦ and 180◦, the orbit is
said to be an inclined orbit.
• For inclinations between 0◦ and
90◦, the satellite travels in the
same direction as the direction
of rotation of the Earth.
• The orbit in this case is referred
to as a direct or prograde orbit
Retrograde orbit
• For inclinations between 90◦ and 180◦, the satellite orbits in a
direction opposite to the direction of rotation of the Earth and the
orbit in this case is called a retrograde orbit.
 2.Eccentricity of the Orbit
On the basis of eccentricity, the orbits are
classified as :
(a) Elliptical Orbit(Figure 2.36 (a))
(b) Circular Orbit (Figure 2.36 (b))
(c) Molniya orbit
• when the orbit eccentricity lies between 0 and
1, the orbit is elliptical with the centre of the
Earth lying at one of the foci of the ellipse.
• When the eccentricity is zero, the orbit
becomes circular.
• It may be mentioned here that all circular orbits
are eccentric to some extent
Examples of eccentricity of orbit

• As an example, the eccentricity of orbit of geostationary satellite

INSAT-3B, an Indian satellite in the INSAT series providing
communication and meteorological services, is 0.000 252 6.
• Eccentricity figures for orbits of GOES-9 and Meteosat-7 geostationary
satellites, both offering weather forecasting services, are 0.000 423 3
and 0.000 252 6 respectively
 Molniya Orbit
• Highly eccentric, inclined and elliptical orbits are
used to cover higher latitudes, which are otherwise
not covered by geostationary orbits.
• A practical example of this type of orbit is the
Molniya orbit (Figure 2.37).
• It is widely used by Russia and other countries of
the former Soviet Union to provide communication
services.
• Typical eccentricity and orbit inclination figures for
the Molniya orbit are 0.75 and 65◦ respectively.
• The apogee and perigee points are about 40 000
km and 400 km respectively from the surface of
the Earth.
 Molniya Orbit
• The Molniya orbit serves the purpose of a
geosynchronous orbit for high latitude regions.
• It is a 12 hour orbit and a satellite in this orbit
spends about 8 hours above a particular high
latitude station before diving down to a low
level perigee at an equally high southern
latitude.
• Usually, three satellites at different phases of
the same Molniya orbit are capable of
providing an uninterrupted service.
3.Distance from Earth
• Depending upon the intended
mission, satellites may be placed
in orbits at varying distances
from the surface of the Earth.
• Depending upon the distance,
these are classified as :
1. Low Earth orbits (LEOs),
2. Medium Earth orbits (MEOs)
3. Geostationary Earth orbits
(GEOs)
Low Earth orbit satellites LEO
• Satellites in the low Earth orbit (LEO) circle Earth at a height of around 160 to 500
km above the surface of the Earth.
• These satellites, being closer to the surface of the Earth, have much shorter orbital
periods and smaller signal propagation delays.
• A lower propagation delay makes them highly suitable for communication
applications.
• Due to lower propagation paths, the power required for signal transmission is also
less, with the result that the satellites are of small physical size and are inexpensive
to build.
• However, due to a shorter orbital period, of the order of an hour and a half or so,
these satellites remain over a particular ground station for a short time.
• Hence, several of these satellites are needed for 24 hour coverage.
Iridium Constellation of Satellite
• One important application of
LEO satellites for communication
is the project Iridium, which is a
global communication system
conceived by Motorola (Figure
2.39).
• A total of 66 satellites are
arranged in a distributed
architecture, with each satellite
carrying 1/66 of the total system
capacity
Iridium Constellation of Satellite
• The system is intended to provide a
variety of telecommunication
services at the global level.
• The project is named ‘Iridium’ as
earlier the constellation was
proposed to have 77 satellites and
the atomic number of iridium is 77.
• Other applications where LEO
satellites can be put to use are
surveillance, weather forecasting,
remote sensing and scientific studies.
Medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites
• Medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites orbit at a
distance of approximately 10 000 to 20 000 km
above the surface of the Earth.
• They have an orbital period of 6 to 12 hours.
• These satellites stay in sight over a particular
region of Earth for a longer time.
• The transmission distance and propagation
delays are greater than those for LEO satellites.
• These orbits are generally polar in nature and
are mainly used for communication and
navigation applications.
 Geostationary Earth orbits (GEOs)
• A geosynchronous Earth orbit is a prograde
orbit whose orbital period is equal to Earth’s
rotational period.
• If such an orbit were in the plane of the
equator and circular, it would remain stationary
with respect to a given point on the Earth.
• These orbits are referred to as the
geostationary Earth orbits (GEOs).
• For the satellite to have such an orbital velocity,
it needs to be at a height of about 36 000 km,
35 786 km to be precise, above the surface of
the Earth.
To be more precise and technical, in order to remain above the same
point on the Earth’s surface, a satellite must fulfil the following
conditions:
1. It must have a constant latitude, which is possible only at 0◦
latitude.
2. The orbit inclination should be zero.
3. It should have a constant longitude and thus have a uniform
angular velocity, which is possible when the orbit is circular.
4. The orbital period should be equal to 23 hours 56 minutes, which
implies that the satellite must orbit at a height of 35 786 km above
the surface of the Earth.
5. The satellite motion must be from west to east.
Geostationary Earth orbits (GEOs)
• In the case where these conditions are
fulfilled, then as the satellite moves from a
position O1 to O2 in its orbit, a point
vertically below on the equator moves
with the same angular velocity and moves
from E1 to E2, as shown in Figure 2.40.
• Satellites in geostationary orbits play an
essential role in relaying communication
and TV broadcast signals around the globe.
They also perform meteorological and
military surveillance functions very
effectively
 Sun-synchronous Orbit
• Another type of satellite orbit, which could
have been categorized as an LEO on the basis
of distance from the surface of the Earth,
needs a special mention and treatment
because of its particular importance to
satellites intended for remote sensing and
military reconnaissance applications.
• A sun-synchronous orbit, also known as a
helio-synchronous orbit, is one that lies in a
plane that maintains a fixed angle with
respect to the Earth–sun direction.
 Sun-synchronous Orbit
• In other words, the orbital plane has a fixed
orientation with respect to the Earth–sun
direction and the angle between the orbital
plane and the Earth–sun line remains
constant throughout the year, as shown in
Figure.
• Satellites in sun-synchronous orbits are
particularly suited to applications like passive
remote sensing, meteorological, military
reconnaissance and atmospheric studies.
 Sun-synchronous Orbit
• As a result of this property, sun-synchronous
orbits ensure that:
• 1. The satellite passes over a given location on
Earth every time at the same local solar time,
thereby guaranteeing almost the same
illumination conditions, varying only with
seasons.
• 2. The satellite ensures coverage of the whole
surface of the Earth, being quasi-polar in
nature.
 Sun-synchronous Orbit
• Every time a sun-synchronous satellite
completes one revolution around Earth, it
traverses a thin strip on the surface of the
Earth.
• During the next revolution it traverses
another strip shifted westwards and the
process of shift continues with successive
revolutions, as shown in Figure.
• Depending upon the orbital parameters and
speed of rotation of Earth, after making a
Earth coverage of sun-synchronous satellites
certain number of revolutions around Earth,
it comes back close to the first strip that it
had traversed.
 Sun-synchronous Orbit
• It may not exactly overlap the first strip, as the mean distance between the two
strips, called the tracking interval,
• It may not be an integral multiple of the equatorial perimeter.
• The number of revolution required before the satellite repeats the same strip
sequence can certainly be calculated.
• This is called one complete orbital cycle, which is basically the time that elapses
before the satellite revisits a given location in the same direction.
• To be more precise, orbital cycle means the whole number of orbital revolutions
that a satellite must describe in order to be once again flying in the same direction
over the same point on the Earth’s surface.
• Landsat-1, -2 and -3 satellites, for instance, have an orbital cycle of 18 days. IRS-1A
and IRS-P2 satellites of India have orbital cycles of 22 days and 24 days respectively.
Question-1
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