Types of Satellites

There are, in general, four types of satellite:
Geostationary satellite (GEO)
High elliptical orbiting satellite (HEO)
Middle-earth orbiting satellite (MEO)
Low-earth-orbiting satellite (LEO)
An HEO satellite is a specialized orbit in which a satellite continuously swings
very close to the earth, loops out into space, and then repeats its swing by the
earth. It is an elliptical orbit approximately 18,000 to 35,000 km above the
earth’ssurface, not necessarily above the equator. HEOs are designed to give
better coverage to countries with higher northern or southern latitudes.
Systems can be designed so that theapogeeis arranged to provide continuous
coverage in a particular area. By definition, anapogeeis the highest altitude-point of the orbit, that is, the point in the orbit where the satellite is farthest
from the earth. To clarify some of the terminology, we provide,Fig. 2.3,which
shows the geometric properties of an elliptical orbit. By geometry,