{"id":122874,"date":"2026-09-05T12:17:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T06:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=122874"},"modified":"2026-09-05T12:17:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T06:47:30","slug":"geosynchronous-orbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/geosynchronous-orbit\/","title":{"rendered":"Geosynchronous Orbit, Meaning, Height, Satellite, Applications"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Geosynchronous Orbit <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is an Earth centered orbit in which a satellite completes one revolution in the same period as Earth\u2019s rotation. Its orbital period is 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds, equal to one sidereal day. The orbit has a semi major axis of about height of 42,164 km from the centre of Earth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Depending on its inclination and eccentricity, a satellite may appear to move across the sky while returning to the same position daily. Geosynchronous Orbit is important for communication, remote sensing and other satellite services.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>What is a Geosynchronous Orbit?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><b>Geosynchronous Orbit <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is a prograde, high Earth orbit that matches Earth\u2019s rotational period. It is also known as the Clarke Orbit, after Arthur C. Clarke, who popularised its use for global communication. A circular geosynchronous orbit has an altitude of about 35,786 km above Earth\u2019s surface.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Geosynchronous Orbit Features<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The general features and important examples of the <\/span><b>Geosynchronous Orbit<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are given below.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Orbital Period: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A satellite in Geosynchronous Orbit completes one <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/rotation-and-revolution-of-earth\/\" target=\"_blank\">revolution<\/a><\/strong> in 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds, matching one sidereal day.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Geostationary Orbit: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A geostationary orbit is a special type of geosynchronous orbit with zero eccentricity and zero inclination, keeping the satellite fixed above the equator.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Tundra Orbit: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Tundra orbit is an eccentric geosynchronous orbit with an inclination of 63.4\u00b0, allowing prolonged coverage over high latitude regions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Satellite Movement: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A geosynchronous <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/types-of-satellite\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>satellite<\/strong><\/a> can appear to move north-south or east-west. Its ground track can form a figure eight pattern because of inclination and eccentricity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>History: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Herman Poto\u010dnik described the concept in 1929. Arthur C. Clarke popularised it in 1945 through his paper on extraterrestrial communication relays.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>First Functional Geosynchronous Satellite: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Syncom 2, successfully placed in geosynchronous orbit in 1963, demonstrated practical satellite communication and relayed television transmissions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Applications: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These orbits support <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/communication-infrastructure-in-india\/\" target=\"_blank\">communications<\/a><\/strong>, weather monitoring, remote sensing and broadcasting. Geostationary satellites allow fixed ground antennas to maintain continuous communication with the same satellite.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Geosynchronous Orbit allows satellites to match Earth\u2019s rotation, supporting communication, broadcasting, weather monitoring and remote sensing, while geostationary orbit offers fixed coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":122808,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786],"tags":[10031,10030],"class_list":["post-122874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-general-studies","tag-geosynchronous","tag-geosynchronous-orbit","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122874"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122972,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122874\/revisions\/122972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}