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Orbital elements based on amateur observations | Sun-synchronous Satellites - Meteorology by LTDN
This a list of satellites in sun-synchronous orbit shown in the order they lie around the Earth. 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.
LTDN |
Satellite |
Cat no |
Desig- nation |
Orbit Epoch |
Orbit |
00:24 | ESSA 2 | 2091 | 1966-016A | 2022 May 18 | 1354 x 1415 km, 113.4 min, 101°.2 | 01:25 | NOAA 20 (JPSS 1) | 43013 | 2017-073A | 2022 May 18 | 826 x 828 km, 101.4 min, 98°.7 | 01:48 | Fengyun 3D | 43010 | 2017-072A | 2022 May 18 | 827 x 830 km, 101.5 min, 98°.8 | 01:51 | NOAA 17 | 27453 | 2002-032A | 2022 May 18 | 800 x 817 km, 101.0 min, 98°.7 | 02:29 | ESSA 8 | 3615 | 1968-114A | 2022 May 18 | 1414 x 1464 km, 114.6 min, 101°.5 | 02:53 | Meteor M2-2 | 44387 | 2019-038A | 2022 May 18 | 811 x 814 km, 101.1 min, 98°.7 | 03:22 | NOAA 5 (ITOS H) | 9057 | 1976-077A | 2022 May 18 | 1508 x 1524 km, 116.3 min, 102°.1 | 04:09 | USA 210 (DMSP 5D-3 F-18) | 35951 | 2009-057A | 2022 May 18 | 839 x 856 km, 101.9 min, 98°.7 | 04:36 | NOAA 10 | 16969 | 1986-073A | 2022 May 18 | 788 x 807 km, 100.8 min, 98°.6 | 04:52 | NOAA 8 | 13923 | 1983-022A | 2022 May 18 | 786 x 806 km, 100.8 min, 98°.7 | 05:05 | Fengyun 1B | 20788 | 1990-081A | 2022 May 18 | 872 x 896 km, 102.7 min, 98°.8 | 05:32 | NOAA 12 | 21263 | 1991-032A | 2022 May 18 | 795 x 816 km, 101.0 min, 98°.5 | 05:39 | Fengyun 3E | 49008 | 2021-062A | 2022 May 18 | 824 x 828 km, 101.4 min, 98°.7 | 05:54 | USA 109 (DMSP 5D-2 F-13) | 23533 | 1995-015A | 2022 May 18 | 833 x 845 km, 101.7 min, 98°.8 | 05:57 | USA 249 (DMSP 5D-3 F-19) | 39630 | 2014-015A | 2022 May 18 | 837 x 854 km, 101.8 min, 98°.7 | 06:31 | USA 191 (DMSP 5D-3 F-17) | 29522 | 2006-050A | 2022 May 18 | 838 x 852 km, 101.8 min, 98°.8 | 07:19 | USA 73 (DMSP 5D-2 F-11) | 21798 | 1991-082A | 2022 May 18 | 828 x 845 km, 101.6 min, 98°.8 | 07:29 | NOAA 15 | 25338 | 1998-030A | 2022 May 18 | 797 x 813 km, 101.0 min, 98°.6 | 08:52 | USA 106 (DMSP 5D-2 S-12) | 23233 | 1994-057A | 2022 May 18 | 832 x 848 km, 101.7 min, 98°.9 | 09:07 | TIROS-N | 11060 | 1978-096A | 2022 May 18 | 824 x 838 km, 101.5 min, 98°.6 | 09:30 | MetOp-B | 38771 | 2012-049A | 2022 May 18 | 819 x 822 km, 101.3 min, 98°.7 | 09:31 | MetOp-C | 43689 | 2018-087A | 2022 May 18 | 817 x 823 km, 101.3 min, 98°.7 | 09:47 | NOAA 1 (ITOS A) | 4793 | 1970-106A | 2022 May 18 | 1423 x 1472 km, 114.8 min, 101°.6 | 10:11 | NOAA 18 | 28654 | 2005-018A | 2022 May 18 | 839 x 861 km, 101.9 min, 98°.9 | 13:22 | TIROS 10 | 1430 | 1965-051A | 2022 May 18 | 718 x 797 km, 100.0 min, 98°.4 | 17:54 | DMSP 5D-2 F-6 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 13736 | 1982-118A | 2022 May 18 | 788 x 799 km, 100.7 min, 98°.6 | 17:58 | USA 26 (DMSP 5D-2 F-8) | 18123 | 1987-053A | 2022 May 18 | 820 x 839 km, 101.5 min, 98°.7 | 18:34 | AMS 3 (DMSP 5D-1 F-3) | 10820 | 1978-042A | 2022 May 18 | 766 x 781 km, 100.3 min, 98°.5 | 19:01 | DMSP 5C F-2 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 7816 | 1975-043A | 2022 May 18 | 775 x 850 km, 101.1 min, 98°.7 | 19:11 | DMSP 5C F-1 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 7411 | 1974-063A | 2022 May 18 | 767 x 829 km, 100.8 min, 98°.6 | 20:10 | DMSP 5A F-1 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 3266 | 1968-042A | 2022 May 18 | 804 x 879 km, 101.7 min, 98°.7 | 20:38 | DMSP 5A F-3 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 4047 | 1969-062A | 2022 May 18 | 765 x 827 km, 100.8 min, 98°.6 | 20:44 | DMSP 4A F-9 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) | 2920 | 1967-080A | 2022 May 18 | 816 x 870 km, 101.8 min, 98°.8 | 23:05 | Nimbus 3 (Nimbus B2) | 3890 | 1969-037A | 2022 May 18 | 1070 x 1129 km, 107.3 min, 99°.9 | 23:12 | Nimbus 6 (Nimbus F) | 7924 | 1975-052A | 2022 May 18 | 1101 x 1112 km, 107.4 min, 100°.1 | 23:22 | Nimbus 5 (Nimbus E) | 6305 | 1972-097A | 2022 May 18 | 1088 x 1100 km, 107.1 min, 99°.9 | 23:51 | Nimbus 4 (Nimbus D) | 4362 | 1970-025A | 2022 May 18 | 1086 x 1098 km, 107.1 min, 100°.0 |
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.
Updated: 2022 May 19, 01:47 UTC
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