What are the advantages/disadvantages of Geostationary Satellites for remote imaging?
As they are positioned at such a high altitude the spatial resolution (ie amount of detail shown) of their images (typically 2.5 Km per pixel) tends to be not as good as some polar orbiting satellites (typically 1 Km to 50m per pixel) which are much closer to the earth. However the advantage of their great height is that they can view the whole earth disk below them, rather than a small subsection, and they can scan the same area very frequently (typically every 30-60 minutes). This makes them ideal for meteorological applications. One big problem with Geostationary satellites is that since they are always positioned above the equator they can’t see the north or south poles and are of limited use for latitudes greater than 60-70 degrees north or south. The further from the equator the lower the spatial resolution of each pixel and the greater the possibility of being hidden by the earth’s curvature. So, for a typical Meteosat image a pixel near the equator may represent a 2.5Km square
