←back to thread

Europe's first geostationary sounder satellite is launched

(www.eumetsat.int)
201 points diggan | 1 comments | 05 Jul 25 14:21 UTC | HN request time: 0.25s | source
Show context
abra0 ◴[05 Jul 25 18:46 UTC] No.44474667[source]▶
> MTG-S1 is the first geostationary meteorological sounder satellite to fly over Europe

I was confused for a minute on how it's both _geostationary_ and _over Europe_ -- you can't be geostationary if your orbit is not over the equator!

Turns out[1] the MTG-S1 satellite is in fact geostationary and parked at exactly 0°00'00"N 0°00'00"E (off the coast of Ghana), 42164 km up from the center of Earth, it's just pointing at Europe at an angle.

1 - https://space.oscar.wmo.int/satellites/view/mtg_s1

replies(4): >>44474787 #>>44475054 #>>44475193 #>>44480420 #
1. complex_pi ◴[05 Jul 25 19:06 UTC] No.44474787[source]▶
NOAA/NASA (USA), EUMETSAT (European organization), JMA (Japan), KMA (Korea), and CMA (China) all have a geostationary satellite (one or more actually). So, northern hemisphere countries, but the coverage is global thanks to the fact that you need to be, as you say, above the equator.