OrbTrack
Predicts & describes the position & path of >10K satellites in Earth orbit, relative to points on the earth's surface input by the user, for 5 days ahead, + International Space Station video feed.
Last updated
Was this helpful?
Predicts & describes the position & path of >10K satellites in Earth orbit, relative to points on the earth's surface input by the user, for 5 days ahead, + International Space Station video feed.
Last updated
Was this helpful?
OrbTrack is a web-based app which allows users to explore satellite sources of imagery by:
entering the geographical location of an observer (i.e. an area of interest)
projecting for 5 days forward the path of a chosen satellite over time, and its distance and angle from the observer
calculating the times when the chosen satellite is in sunlight, and when in darkness
calculating the times when the chosen satellite has a line of sight to the observer
Satellite Sensor Technology
A large segment of Open Source research involves the use of satellite imagery, gathered using a variety of sensor technology. The resolution and aspect of this imagery is crucial in the success of an investigation.
Observer Location
Satellite Name/ Selection of Satellite from Database List
Selection of a Satellite Path from the System-Generated List of Satellite Passes Over the Observer Location in the Next 5 days
As well as satellite position information, the OrbTrack interface provides its speed, its height, its path over time, its position relative to a user-defined Observation location, the position of the sun, the areas of the earth in night and day, and the area of the earth below the satellite which has a positive elevation angle to the satellite.
An example of one service which is used in Open Source Research would be the Planet satellite service, which operates what is called 'constellations' of satellites, which have different spatial, temporal and radiometric resolutions.
OrbTrack includes a distance scale on all its earth maps.
The OrbTrack interface is not difficult to use: the difficulty rating reflects the contextual understanding required to use OrbTrack effectively. This includes concepts around satellites, their orbits, their position relative to the Earth and the Sun, the different types of sensors they carry, how imaging is affected by elevation angle, etc.
None. OrbTrack does not require any form of login or registration.
Time Limited: OrbTrack provides satellite path data for 5 days ahead of the date upon which it is being used. It cannot provide historical data or forward predictions past this point. This is a serious limitation for many Open Source Research applications.
No "Reverse Search": OrbTrack allows the user to find information about a particular satellite over a particular time period, but search within this space needs to be done by trial and error: for example, OrbTrack will not take as inputs the co-ordinates of a given location and a given angle of elevation and return the list of satellites whose paths fulfil this angle to that location within the next 5 days.
By its nature, satellite imaging can be intrusive and be used to focus attention on locations and people which could prove unwelcome.
Sophie Tedling
Satellites carry many different forms of sensor, e.g. photographic imaging, heat imaging () , LIDAR () imaging, SAR () imaging,... Not all of these require the earth to be in sunlight to collect useful data and some of these can operate successfully in the presence of cloud cover.
The satellite database is provided from by Dr T. S. Kelso. Researchers can use it to cross-reference service names with satellite names. This is usually a one-to-many relationship where a service uses a number of satellites to deliver regular (or even continuous) imagery in the intended area(s) of focus.
A brief overview of how OrbTrack fits within the suite of free apps which include suncalc.org, mooncalc.org, planetscalc.org.
Torsten Hoffman (Germany) with satellite data from Dr T. S. Kelso via .
