FENGYUN 3A

Polar-orbiting weather satellites sample the entire planet over successive orbits, making orbit inclination and swath width central to coverage.

Polar-orbiting weather satellites sample the entire planet over successive orbits, making orbit inclination and swath width central to coverage.

Weather spacecraft carry instruments that observe Earth and its atmosphere in visible, infrared, microwave, or other wavelengths. Different orbits provide either repeated regional views or broad global coverage.

• Polar-orbiting weather satellites sample the entire planet over successive orbits, making orbit inclination and swath width central to coverage.

Polar-orbiting weather satellites sample the entire planet over successive orbits, making orbit inclination and swath width central to coverage.

The current two-line element set reports approximately 14.1959 revolutions per day. Dividing 1,440 minutes by that value gives an estimated orbital period of 101.4 minutes.

Fengyun-3A launched on 27 May 2008 aboard a Long March 4C from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center.

Low Earth orbit is the region closest to Earth used by most crewed spacecraft, many science missions, Earth-observation satellites, and large constellations. Objects move quickly and commonly complete an orbit in roughly 90 to 130 minutes.

LEO can provide detailed Earth views, lower communications delay, and easier access than higher orbits, but it covers less area per spacecraft and is more affected by atmospheric drag.

• Why can infrared instruments observe clouds at night?
• What is the difference between continuous regional coverage and global coverage?

Current identity and orbital elements come from CelesTrak’s public GP data. Calculated orbit values are derived from the current TLE and may change after catalog updates. Mission-history claims are added separately and require authoritative sources.

• CelesTrak NORAD GP Element Sets