Professor Verner Suomi explains geostationary orbit to highlight the importance of continuous viewing of the Earth from space. His invention, the Spin-Scan Cloud Camera, tracked cloud motions from space and revolutionized the field of satellite meteorology and weather forecasting. Geostationary orbit occurs at roughly six times the Earth's radius above the equator. The orbital period is 24 hours, equaling the one-day rotation of the Earth on its axis.
This video is in the public domain; however, when using images from this digital collection, please use this attribution: Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison and NASA.