This animation shows the orbits of NASA's fleet of Earth observing spacecraft that are considered operational as of October 2018. New elements in this version include the ICESat-2 and Cloudsat/CALIPSO in new orbits. The clouds used in this version are from a high resolution GEOS model run at 10 minute time steps interpolated down to the per-frame level.
Spacecraft included: Aqua Aura CALIPSO: Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation CYGNSS-1: Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System 1 CYGNSS-2: Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System 2 CYGNSS-3: Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System 3 CYGNSS-4: Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System 4 CYNGSS-5: Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System 5 CYGNSS-6: Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System 6 CYGNSS-7: Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System 7 CYGNSS-8: Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System 8 Cloudsat DSCOVR: Deep Space Climate Observatory GPM: Global Precipitation Measurement GRACE-FO-1: Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow On-1 GRACE-FO-2: Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow On-2 ICESat-2 ISS: International Space Station Jason 2 Jason 3 Landsat 7 Landsat 8 OCO-2: Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 SMAP: Soil Moisture Passive Active SORCE: Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment Suomi NPP: Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Terra