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Polar Orbiting Satellites
the POES program
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Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites
(POES) are placed in circular sun-synchronous (see below) orbits and
their altitudes usually range from 700 to 800 kilometers, with orbital
periods of 98 to 102 minutes.
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Image provided by:
National Climatic Data Center |
POES satellites include:
Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP),
Landsat, SPOT and
NOAA Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental
Satellites (NPOES).
The
DMSP and NPOES satellites
are operational meteorological satellites. Imagery from successive
orbits overlay each other, providing global daily coverage from each
satellite. Commercial polar orbiters like Landsat and SPOT, on the
other hand, are intended for
geophysical remote sensing, with an emphasis on high-resolution and
multispectral imagery, at the cost of daily global coverage.
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