by neufer » Sat Jul 24, 2021 9:18 pm
Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sat Jul 24, 2021 5:17 pm
shaileshs wrote: ↑Sat Jul 24, 2021 5:00 pm
Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sat Jul 24, 2021 2:47 pm
It depends upon what percentage of a hemisphere you want to require to be visible.
Even from low Earth orbit, much of the hemisphere below you is over the horizon.
Chris, I meant FULL shape of earth in view. Full circle.
The Quora article below says Google Earth shows it at around 11000Km..
https://www.quora.com/How-far-one-needs ... s-a-sphere
In order to see one full hemisphere of the Earth, you need to be infinitely far away from it.
So like I said, it comes down to what fraction you want to see. Which is another arbitrary value.
At H=11000 km one can to observe H/(H+R) = 0.63 = 63% of a hemisphere at any given time.
Geostationary satellites (H=35,786 km) can observe
H/(H+R) = 0.849 = 84.9% of a hemisphere
[up to latitudes of arccos(1.00 - 0.849) = 81.3º]
such that 3 Geostationary satellites cover the Earth quite well.
Bezos's New Shepard 4 went to H=107 km so as to observe just H/(H+R) = 1.65% of a hemisphere
out to distances of (10,000 km/90º) x arccos(1.00 - 0.0165) = 1,160 km.
(Chris's 3m ladder might allow him to observe ~ 120 km
2 from atop
Mount Sunflower.)
.............................................................................................
Note, however, that: Sun stationary Earth polar satellites fly at an altitude of 834 km:
which allows them to observe H/(H+R) = 0.11 = 11% of a hemisphere at any given time.
Nevertheless, since their full 2arccos(1.00 - 0.11) = 54.25º (6,000 km) wide scans
of the Earth are
constantly moving N/S (while the Earth rotates W/E underneath)
after 14 (101.44 min) orbits the entire Earth's surface gets observed at least twice a day.
[quote="Chris Peterson" post_id=315263 time=1627147031 user_id=117706]
[quote=shaileshs post_id=315262 time=1627146026 user_id=143908]
[quote="Chris Peterson" post_id=315259 time=1627138038 user_id=117706]
It depends upon what percentage of a hemisphere you want to require to be visible.
Even from low Earth orbit, much of the hemisphere below you is over the horizon.[/quote]
Chris, I meant FULL shape of earth in view. Full circle.
The Quora article below says Google Earth shows it at around 11000Km..
https://www.quora.com/How-far-one-needs-to-go-into-the-space-to-see-the-planet-earth-as-a-sphere[/quote]
In order to see one full hemisphere of the Earth, you need to be infinitely far away from it.
So like I said, it comes down to what fraction you want to see. Which is another arbitrary value.[/quote]
At H=11000 km one can to observe H/(H+R) = 0.63 = 63% of a hemisphere at any given time.
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_orbit]Geostationary satellites[/url] (H=35,786 km) can observe
H/(H+R) = 0.849 = 84.9% of a hemisphere
[up to latitudes of arccos(1.00 - 0.849) = 81.3º]
such that 3 Geostationary satellites cover the Earth quite well.
Bezos's New Shepard 4 went to H=107 km so as to observe just H/(H+R) = 1.65% of a hemisphere
out to distances of (10,000 km/90º) x arccos(1.00 - 0.0165) = 1,160 km.
(Chris's 3m ladder might allow him to observe ~ 120 km[sup]2[/sup] from atop [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Sunflower]Mount Sunflower[/url].)
.............................................................................................
Note, however, that: Sun stationary Earth polar satellites fly at an altitude of 834 km:
[list]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOAA-20
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suomi_NPP[/list]
which allows them to observe H/(H+R) = 0.11 = 11% of a hemisphere at any given time.
Nevertheless, since their full 2arccos(1.00 - 0.11) = 54.25º (6,000 km) wide scans
of the Earth are [b][u][color=#0000FF]constantly moving N/S (while the Earth rotates W/E underneath)[/color][/u][/b]
after 14 (101.44 min) orbits the entire Earth's surface gets observed at least twice a day.