If satellites are orbiting the Earth, how can they still work when they leave the area which they were supposed to broadcast to?
In: Technology
There’s 2 possibilities.
First, they don’t. It’s called a geostationary orbit, which means that the satellite is so far up that the time it takes once around the earth is exactly the same it takes for the earth to spin once. In other words, it seems the satellite is standing still right above.
That only works around the equator, though. Since the satellite isn’t REALLY standing still, it has to go in an orbit, and it can only go in an orbit around the “whole” earth, not just orbit at a certain latitude. So if it was inclined, you’d see it go north-south (if you look up from the ground) as it orbits.
That the geostationary orbit is around the equator is also the reason why you have to point your sat dishes towards the south (if you’re in the north, to the north if you’re in the south) to receive the sat programs. The sat you’re aiming at is orbiting around the equator.
That works for most of the earth, it doens’t, though, if you’re close to the poles (and I mean really close, most of Canada and Sweden should still be good). Beyond that, sats are often put in a so called Molniya orbit. Look it up on Wikipedia if you’re interested. Basically the idea is here to put the sat into a very elliptical orbit that makes it be in the desired position for as long as possible. That way you can handle areas closer to the poles.
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