Why don't satellites travel in a straight path across the globe? They dip and rise instead.?

Answer 1

If you saw the satellite's path mapped on an actual globe, you would see that it is a great circle that rotates relative to the Earth's surface. The wavy path you're referring to is what you see when this is projected onto a two-dimensional map.

Answer 2

Any orbit must cross the equator twice during the orbit. An orbit must follow a great circle about the planet. A great circle is a circle that lies on the surface of a sphere and has the same circumference as that sphere, dividing it into two equal hemispheres.

The only lattitude over which a satellite can orbit entirely is 0 degrees, or the equator. You can't orbit at a lattitude of, say, 30 degrees. Because of this, unless the orbit is directly over the equator, any ground track on the map of the Earth will appear as a sine wave.

Additionally, the Earth rotates under the spacecraft. This is evident by the fact that you will see the ground track move westward along the map of the Earth, or in cases where for which this effect is compensated, the ground track will be out of phase with itself-- that is to say it will not ever reconnect with it's starting position on the map.

The sinusoidal nature of orbital ground tracks on maps has nothing to do with orbits being elliptical. Elliptical orbits must still have a ground track that is a great circle about the globe. However, in greatly elliptical orbits, ground tracks that are adjusted to account for Earth's rotation will appear irregularly shaped, as the satellite will be moving at notably different rates of speed during it's orbit. The ground track will appear compressed in width near the apogee of the orbit, and stretched near the perigee.

Answer 3

Consider a globe rotating is space,now put a satellite in orbit in any direction around that globe.
By referencing any point or land mass you can imagine how the satellite track works,though it always maintains the same distance from the globe.

Answer 4

The orbit of a satellite is a circular or elliptical track in one plane. If it was circling around a fixed object the track would retrace the same straight line over and over.
What you see for say, the space shuttle track on TV is the ground track. The earth is rotating under the satellite and as a result the track moves east at a rate of 360 degrees of longitude in 24 hours.
cheers

Answer 5

Hi. All satellites travel in elliptical orbits. The center of the ellipse is the center of gravity of the Earth, which moves beneath the orbit. Since the Earth moves so slow compared to most satellites (not geosynchronous ones) that the travel line appears straight.

Answer 6

Satellites can have either circular orbits or elliptical orbits around the earth. They don't "dip or rise".

Answer 7

There are like 5.5 billion human beings asserting that Islam is fake. Neither ingredient has a single stable rationalization for believing that their faith is genuine. once you insist on pretending in any different case, the believers have that incredibly greater reason to think of they are remotely sane. you won't be in a position to attain the not hassle-free middle believers yet you are able to attain those human beings on the fringes, those people who're very practically agnostic. those human beings could desire to the two grow to be hardcore believers (murderous fanatical fundamentalist nuts) or atheists (by ability of which I merely recommend "those people who have not got faith any gods exist" as unfavourable to "those people who 'comprehend' that NO gods exist"). For the sake of humanity, we could desire to consistently attempt to get them to grow to be atheists. The "How do you comprehend that Xtianity/Islam is right ?" question assumes that those human beings can think of exterior their little container. They for sure won't be in a position to or they does not have faith of their respective delusions.