the orbit of a satellite that passes over the poles of a planet
polar orbit in American English
noun
a spacecraft orbit that passes over, or close to, the geographic poles of the earth or some othercelestial body
Word origin
[1960–65]This word is first recorded in the period 1960–65. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: buyback, deinstitutionalize, disco, go-go, tag question
Examples of 'polar orbit' in a sentence
polar orbit
Its polar orbit makes good latitude coverage possible.
J. L. Bertaux, E. Kyrölä, D. Fussen, A. Hauchecorne, F. Dalaudier, V. Sofieva, J.Tamminen, F. Vanhellemont, O. Fanton d'Andon, G. Barrot, A. Mangin, L. Blanot, J.C. Lebrun, K. Pérot, T. Fehr, L. Saavedra, G. W. Leppelmeier, R. Fraisse 2010, 'Global ozone monitoring by occultation of stars: an overview of GOMOS measurementson ENVISAT', Atmospheric Chemistry and Physicshttp://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/10/12091/2010/acp-10-12091-2010.pdf. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
In 2005, the satellite was launched, and injected into the low earth polar orbit.
Sone Yoshitsugu, Watanabe Hiromi, Tanaka Kohei, Mendoza-Hernandez Omar Samuel, FukudaSeisuke, Itagaki Masayuki, Ogawa Keita, Asamura Kazushi, Yamazaki Atsushi, NagamatsuHiroyuki, Fukushima Yosuke, Saito Hirofumi 2017, 'Internal Impedance of the Lithium-Ion Secondary Cells Used for Reimei Satellite afterthe Eleven Years Operation in Space', E3S Web of Conferenceshttps://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20171607005. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)