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Orbital elements based on amateur observations | Sun-synchronous Satellites - Meteorology
This a list of metsats in sun-synchronous orbit. Names are not necessarily those by which they are known in the NORAD catalogue used by SpaceTrack.
It is a snapshot and is updated daily. The measure that results in an entry in this table is that the drift rate of LTDN (Local Time at the Descending Node) is no more than twenty four minutes each year. Some satellites may have higher drift rates but they may still be acceptable to their owners/operators. They do not appear here. On the converse, although a satellite is in a sun-synchronous orbit, it is not necessarily active.
Cubesats less than 6U in size are excluded from the list because the vast majority reached space by hitch hiking and their final orbit was not important. Listing them would create an unnecessarily long page.
The menu on the left leads to some, hopefully useful, sub-lists of the satellites on this page.
Updated: 2024 Jun 27, 02:48 UTC
LTDN |
Satellite |
Cat no |
Desig- nation |
Orbit Epoch |
Orbit |
18:34 | AMS 3 (DMSP 5D-1 F-3) | 10820 | 1978-042A | 2024 Jun 26 | 763 x 776 km, 100.2 min, 98°.5 | 02:33 | AMS 4 (DMSP 5D-1 F-4) | 11389 | 1979-050A | 2024 Jun 26 | 787 x 805 km, 100.8 min, 98°.5 | 16:16 | DMSP 4A F-7 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 2418 | 1966-082A | 2024 Jun 26 | 665 x 833 km, 99.8 min, 98°.2 | 20:22 | DMSP 4A F-9 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 2920 | 1967-080A | 2024 Jun 26 | 816 x 869 km, 101.8 min, 98°.7 | 14:06 | DMSP 5A F-2 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 3510 | 1968-092A | 2024 Jun 26 | 779 x 820 km, 100.9 min, 98°.5 | 20:31 | DMSP 5A F-3 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 4047 | 1969-062A | 2024 Jun 26 | 764 x 826 km, 100.8 min, 98°.5 | 17:06 | DMSP 5B F-3 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 6275 | 1972-089A | 2024 Jun 26 | 771 x 820 km, 100.8 min, 98°.5 | 20:14 | DMSP 5B F-4 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 6787 | 1973-054A | 2024 Jun 26 | 764 x 801 km, 100.5 min, 98°.7 | 19:13 | DMSP 5C F-1 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 7411 | 1974-063A | 2024 Jun 26 | 766 x 825 km, 100.8 min, 98°.6 | 19:17 | DMSP 5C F-2 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 7816 | 1975-043A | 2024 Jun 26 | 772 x 849 km, 101.1 min, 98°.7 | 17:56 | DMSP 5D-2 F-6 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 13736 | 1982-118A | 2024 Jun 26 | 787 x 797 km, 100.7 min, 98°.6 | 23:55 | ESSA 2 | 2091 | 1966-016A | 2024 Jun 26 | 1355 x 1414 km, 113.4 min, 101°.2 | 02:05 | ESSA 8 | 3615 | 1968-114A | 2024 Jun 26 | 1414 x 1463 km, 114.6 min, 101°.6 | 04:24 | Fengyun 1B (Fengyun 1-02) | 20788 | 1990-081A | 2024 Jun 26 | 872 x 895 km, 102.6 min, 98°.9 | 02:01 | Fengyun 3A (Fengyun 3-01) | 32958 | 2008-026A | 2024 Jun 26 | 821 x 835 km, 101.5 min, 98°.6 | 05:38 | Fengyun 3E (Fengyun 3-05) | 49008 | 2021-062A | 2024 Jun 26 | 825 x 828 km, 101.4 min, 98°.7 | 02:58 | Meteor M-1 | 35865 | 2009-049A | 2024 Jun 26 | 815 x 817 km, 101.2 min, 98°.6 | 09:21 | MetOp-B | 38771 | 2012-049A | 2024 Jun 26 | 819 x 822 km, 101.3 min, 98°.6 | 09:30 | MetOp-C | 43689 | 2018-087A | 2024 Jun 26 | 818 x 823 km, 101.3 min, 98°.7 | 22:29 | Nimbus 3 (Nimbus B2) | 3890 | 1969-037A | 2024 Jun 26 | 1071 x 1129 km, 107.3 min, 99°.8 | 00:03 | Nimbus 4 (Nimbus D) | 4362 | 1970-025A | 2024 Jun 26 | 1087 x 1097 km, 107.1 min, 100°.0 | 23:10 | Nimbus 5 (Nimbus E) | 6305 | 1972-097A | 2024 Jun 26 | 1087 x 1100 km, 107.1 min, 99°.9 | 23:31 | Nimbus 6 (Nimbus F) | 7924 | 1975-052A | 2024 Jun 26 | 1100 x 1112 km, 107.4 min, 100°.0 | 03:47 | NOAA 5 (ITOS H) | 9057 | 1976-077A | 2024 Jun 26 | 1509 x 1523 km, 116.3 min, 102°.2 | 06:58 | NOAA 6 | 11416 | 1979-057A | 2024 Jun 26 | 770 x 783 km, 100.4 min, 98°.6 | 09:30 | NOAA 7 | 12553 | 1981-059A | 2024 Jun 26 | 825 x 842 km, 101.6 min, 98°.9 | 04:37 | NOAA 10 | 16969 | 1986-073A | 2024 Jun 26 | 788 x 804 km, 100.8 min, 98°.6 | 04:57 | NOAA 12 | 21263 | 1991-032A | 2024 Jun 26 | 795 x 814 km, 101.0 min, 98°.6 | 07:21 | NOAA 15 | 25338 | 1998-030A | 2024 Jun 26 | 796 x 810 km, 100.9 min, 98°.6 | 02:15 | NOAA 17 | 27453 | 2002-032A | 2024 Jun 26 | 799 x 814 km, 101.0 min, 98°.8 | 10:41 | NOAA 18 | 28654 | 2005-018A | 2024 Jun 26 | 838 x 859 km, 101.9 min, 98°.9 | 01:24 | NOAA 20 (JPSS, Joint Polar Satellite System 1) | 43013 | 2017-073A | 2024 Jun 26 | 826 x 828 km, 101.4 min, 98°.7 | 13:12 | TIROS 10 | 1430 | 1965-051A | 2024 Jun 26 | 715 x 796 km, 99.9 min, 98°.4 | 17:55 | USA 26 (DMSP 5D-2 F-8) | 18123 | 1987-053A | 2024 Jun 26 | 818 x 838 km, 101.5 min, 98°.7 | 07:34 | USA 73 (DMSP 5D-2 F-11) | 21798 | 1991-082A | 2024 Jun 26 | 826 x 845 km, 101.6 min, 98°.8 | 09:10 | USA 106 (DMSP 5D-2 S-12) | 23233 | 1994-057A | 2024 Jun 26 | 831 x 847 km, 101.7 min, 98°.8 | 06:11 | USA 109 (DMSP 5D-2 F-13) | 23533 | 1995-015A | 2024 Jun 26 | 832 x 843 km, 101.7 min, 98°.8 | 08:32 | USA 131 (DMSP 5D-2 F-14) | 24753 | 1997-012A | 2024 Jun 26 | 832 x 844 km, 101.7 min, 98°.9 | 06:15 | USA 191 (DMSP 5D-3 F-17) | 29522 | 2006-050A | 2024 Jun 26 | 837 x 851 km, 101.8 min, 98°.7 | 03:54 | USA 210 (DMSP 5D-3 F-18) | 35951 | 2009-057A | 2024 Jun 26 | 837 x 854 km, 101.8 min, 98°.8 | 05:39 | USA 249 (DMSP 5D-3 F-19) | 39630 | 2014-015A | 2024 Jun 26 | 836 x 853 km, 101.8 min, 98°.8 |
For the satellites that do not have formal published elements, thanks go to the radio and visual amateur satellite trackers for their observing, and particularly to Mike McCants for archiving the derived orbits.
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