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This doesn't make sense. How can there be more satellites in the Eastern hemisphere than in the Western? Navigation satellites are in low earth orbit: they go a
by PaulAJ 7y ago
This doesn't make sense. How can there be more satellites in the Eastern hemisphere than in the Western? Navigation satellites are in low earth orbit: they go around the earth every couple of hours. I could understand if one constellation had better polar coverage while another has better equatorial, but an east-west divide isn't physically possible (unless the Chinese are turning their satellites off when over the Americas).
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- sumanthvepa 7y agoIt's the dynamics of the the satellites' movement that create this effect. At any point in time it is possible for there to be more satellites in one region of the sky than elsewhere. That does not mean that any one satellite stays in the same position. The satellites continue to move around the planet.
- ZeKZ 7y agoThey use a lot of geosynchronous orbits over China to have a better coverage in this area. Take a look at the orbits here : https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Ground-tracks-of-the-BeiDou-satellites-and-distribution-of-the-experimental-tracking_fig1_236080831 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Ground-tracks-of-the-Bei...
- robocat 7y agoEasily if using QZSS or synchronous orbits. For example the Japanese use QZSS orbits to for 3 of their satellites: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasi-Zenith_Satellite_System https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasi-Zenith_Satellite_Syste...