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What are polar satellite? Describe their usefulness.

Answer»

Polar satellites are low altitude (h = 500 to 800 km) satellites and go around the poles of the earth in a north-south direction whereas the earth rotates around its axis in east-west direction. The time period of a polar satellite is approximately 100 minutes, hence it crosses any altitude many times a day.

However, since its height is only 500-800 km, a camera fixed on it can view only small strips of the earth in one orbit. Adjacent strips are viewed in the next orbit, so that in effect, the whole earth can be viewed strip by strip during the entire day. These satellite can view polar and equatorial regions at close distances with good resolution. Information gathered from such satellites is extremely useful in remote sensing meterology as well as for environmental studies of the earth.



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