Molniya Orbit
Saturday, August 15th, 2009The Molniya orbit is a high elliptical type of orbit first used by Russia. A satellite in such an orbit is semi- synchronous, spending about six to eight hours of every 24 hours over a particular region of the earth. This is ideal for communications satellites used to provide coverage in the extreme northern latitudes where access to geostationary satellites can be difficult. There are systems of other satellites in Molniya orbits in which ground systems switch among three or four such satellites in order to receive continuous coverage.
Satellite Communications Systems
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008Satellite communication systems are referred to as satcoms in short. Satellite communication is carried out through artificial satellites positioned in space in different kinds of orbits. There are five different kinds of orbits – low (non-polar and polar) Earth (LEO) orbits, medium earth orbits (MEO), highly elliptical orbits (HEO) and geostationary orbits.