The satellite revisit period is the time elapsed between observations of the same point on Earth by a

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

. It depends on the satellite's

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an ...

, target location, and swath of the sensor. "Revisit" is related to the same ground trace, a projection of the satellite's orbit on to the Earth. Revisit requires a very close repeat of the ground trace. In the case of

polar orbit A polar orbit is one in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited (usually a planet such as the Earth, but possibly another body such as the Moon or Sun) on each revolution. It has an inclination of abo ...

or highly inclined low-Earth-orbit

reconnaissance satellite A reconnaissance satellite or intelligence satellite (commonly, although unofficially, referred to as a spy satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications. The ...

s, the sensor must have the variable swath, to look longitudinally (east-west, or sideways) at a target, in addition to direct overflight observation, looking

nadir The nadir is the direction pointing directly ''below'' a particular location; that is, it is one of two vertical directions at a specified location, orthogonal to a horizontal flat surface. The direction opposite of the nadir is the zenith. Et ...

. In the case of the

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

EROS Eros (, ; ) is the Greek god of love and sex. The Romans referred to him as Cupid or Amor. In the earliest account, he is a primordial god, while in later accounts he is the child of Aphrodite. He is usually presented as a handsome young ma ...

Earth observation satellite, the ground trace repeat is 15 days, but the actual revisit time is 3 days, because of the swath ability of the camera payload.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Satellite Revisit Satellites Orbits

See also

References