Visualizations by
Greg Shirah
Released on December 13, 2021
This animation shows the orbits of NASA's fleet of Earth observing spacecraft that are considered operational as of December 2021. Note that Landsat 9 is still completing the commissioning period and is expected to be declared operational in mid-January 2022. 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.
Changes to this version include: removal of Landsat-7 and addition of Landsat-9. 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 • 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 • Landsat 8 • Landsat 9 • OCO-2: Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 • SMAP: Soil Moisture Passive Active • Suomi NPP: Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership • Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich • Terra