geosynchronous en · 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.
Meanings
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(not-comparable) 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.
1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 250:
Deriveds
geosynchronously · geosynchronicity · geosynchronous orbit
Relateds
areosynchronous · geostationary · heliosynchronous · heliostationary
Translations (5)
fr géosynchrone (orbit whose rate of revolution is matched with Earth) · fi geosynkroninen (orbit whose rate of revolution is matched with Earth) · tr jeosenkron (orbit whose rate of revolution is matched with Earth) · ru геосинхро́нный (orbit whose rate of revolution is matched with Earth) · it geosincrono (orbit whose rate of revolution is matched with Earth)