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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 Apr 18, 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 Apr 17 | 763 x 777 km, 100.2 min, 98°.5 | 02:35 | AMS 4 (DMSP 5D-1 F-4) | 11389 | 1979-050A | 2024 Apr 17 | 788 x 804 km, 100.8 min, 98°.5 | 20:26 | DMSP 4A F-9 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 2920 | 1967-080A | 2024 Apr 17 | 814 x 871 km, 101.8 min, 98°.7 | 14:10 | DMSP 5A F-2 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 3510 | 1968-092A | 2024 Apr 17 | 777 x 822 km, 100.9 min, 98°.5 | 20:33 | DMSP 5A F-3 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 4047 | 1969-062A | 2024 Apr 17 | 762 x 827 km, 100.8 min, 98°.5 | 17:10 | DMSP 5B F-3 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 6275 | 1972-089A | 2024 Apr 17 | 770 x 822 km, 100.8 min, 98°.5 | 20:10 | DMSP 5B F-4 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 6787 | 1973-054A | 2024 Apr 17 | 764 x 801 km, 100.5 min, 98°.7 | 19:14 | DMSP 5C F-1 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 7411 | 1974-063A | 2024 Apr 17 | 766 x 826 km, 100.8 min, 98°.6 | 19:17 | DMSP 5C F-2 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 7816 | 1975-043A | 2024 Apr 17 | 773 x 848 km, 101.1 min, 98°.7 | 17:55 | DMSP 5D-2 F-6 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 13736 | 1982-118A | 2024 Apr 17 | 786 x 798 km, 100.7 min, 98°.6 | 23:58 | ESSA 2 | 2091 | 1966-016A | 2024 Apr 17 | 1354 x 1415 km, 113.4 min, 101°.3 | 02:06 | ESSA 8 | 3615 | 1968-114A | 2024 Apr 17 | 1413 x 1464 km, 114.6 min, 101°.6 | 04:26 | Fengyun 1B (Fengyun 1-02) | 20788 | 1990-081A | 2024 Apr 17 | 872 x 895 km, 102.6 min, 98°.9 | 02:05 | Fengyun 3A (Fengyun 3-01) | 32958 | 2008-026A | 2024 Apr 17 | 823 x 834 km, 101.5 min, 98°.6 | 05:37 | Fengyun 3E (Fengyun 3-05) | 49008 | 2021-062A | 2024 Apr 17 | 825 x 827 km, 101.4 min, 98°.7 | 02:59 | Meteor M-1 | 35865 | 2009-049A | 2024 Apr 17 | 814 x 819 km, 101.2 min, 98°.6 | 09:23 | MetOp-B | 38771 | 2012-049A | 2024 Apr 17 | 819 x 821 km, 101.3 min, 98°.6 | 09:29 | MetOp-C | 43689 | 2018-087A | 2024 Apr 17 | 820 x 821 km, 101.3 min, 98°.7 | 22:33 | Nimbus 3 (Nimbus B2) | 3890 | 1969-037A | 2024 Apr 17 | 1070 x 1130 km, 107.3 min, 99°.8 | 00:02 | Nimbus 4 (Nimbus D) | 4362 | 1970-025A | 2024 Apr 17 | 1086 x 1098 km, 107.1 min, 100°.0 | 23:12 | Nimbus 5 (Nimbus E) | 6305 | 1972-097A | 2024 Apr 17 | 1088 x 1099 km, 107.1 min, 99°.9 | 23:29 | Nimbus 6 (Nimbus F) | 7924 | 1975-052A | 2024 Apr 17 | 1101 x 1112 km, 107.4 min, 100°.0 | 03:43 | NOAA 5 (ITOS H) | 9057 | 1976-077A | 2024 Apr 17 | 1508 x 1524 km, 116.3 min, 102°.2 | 06:54 | NOAA 6 | 11416 | 1979-057A | 2024 Apr 17 | 769 x 785 km, 100.4 min, 98°.6 | 04:35 | NOAA 10 | 16969 | 1986-073A | 2024 Apr 17 | 787 x 806 km, 100.8 min, 98°.6 | 04:59 | NOAA 12 | 21263 | 1991-032A | 2024 Apr 17 | 794 x 814 km, 101.0 min, 98°.6 | 07:23 | NOAA 15 | 25338 | 1998-030A | 2024 Apr 17 | 795 x 811 km, 100.9 min, 98°.6 | 02:12 | NOAA 17 | 27453 | 2002-032A | 2024 Apr 17 | 798 x 816 km, 101.0 min, 98°.8 | 10:39 | NOAA 18 | 28654 | 2005-018A | 2024 Apr 17 | 839 x 858 km, 101.9 min, 98°.9 | 01:25 | NOAA 20 (JPSS, Joint Polar Satellite System 1) | 43013 | 2017-073A | 2024 Apr 17 | 826 x 828 km, 101.4 min, 98°.7 | 13:12 | TIROS 10 | 1430 | 1965-051A | 2024 Apr 17 | 717 x 795 km, 99.9 min, 98°.4 | 17:55 | USA 26 (DMSP 5D-2 F-8) | 18123 | 1987-053A | 2024 Apr 17 | 819 x 836 km, 101.5 min, 98°.7 | 07:33 | USA 73 (DMSP 5D-2 F-11) | 21798 | 1991-082A | 2024 Apr 17 | 826 x 845 km, 101.6 min, 98°.8 | 09:10 | USA 106 (DMSP 5D-2 S-12) | 23233 | 1994-057A | 2024 Apr 17 | 831 x 848 km, 101.7 min, 98°.8 | 06:09 | USA 109 (DMSP 5D-2 F-13) | 23533 | 1995-015A | 2024 Apr 17 | 833 x 842 km, 101.7 min, 98°.8 | 08:30 | USA 131 (DMSP 5D-2 F-14) | 24753 | 1997-012A | 2024 Apr 17 | 832 x 844 km, 101.7 min, 98°.9 | 06:16 | USA 191 (DMSP 5D-3 F-17) | 29522 | 2006-050A | 2024 Apr 17 | 836 x 852 km, 101.8 min, 98°.7 | 03:54 | USA 210 (DMSP 5D-3 F-18) | 35951 | 2009-057A | 2024 Apr 17 | 838 x 853 km, 101.8 min, 98°.8 | 05:40 | USA 249 (DMSP 5D-3 F-19) | 39630 | 2014-015A | 2024 Apr 17 | 838 x 851 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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