geosynchronous

adj

Etymology: Etymology tree Pre-Greek der. Proto-Hellenic *gayader. Ancient Greek γαῖᾰ (gaîă)clip. Ancient Greek γῆ (gê) Ancient Greek -ο- (-o-) Ancient Greek γεω- (geō-)der. English geo- English synchronous English geosynchronous From geo- + synchronous.

1. Refers to the orbit of a satellite whose rate of revolution is matched to the rotation period of the Earth. A special case is the geostationary orbit, which is circular and equatorial, so that the satellite appears to be fixed over a particular point on Earth's surface.

   “Hiro looks up, focuses his gaze on Earth, zooms in for a look. As he gets closer, the imagery he’s looking at shifts from the long-range pictures coming in from the geosynchronous satellites to the good stuff being spewed into the CIC computer from a whole fleet of low-flying spy birds. The view he’s looking at is a mosaic of images shot no more than a few hours ago.”