Satellite constellations
A constellation is a group of satellites working together for communications or navigation. The map shows their spacecraft, orbital planes and geometric visibility areas.
Communications and navigation
Communications systems such as Starlink and OneWeb use many spacecraft to maintain coverage as they move over Earth. Navigation systems including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou broadcast timing and orbital signals that receivers use to calculate position.
Different purposes call for different altitudes, inclinations and numbers of orbital planes. The map helps compare system designs; it does not measure service quality or a receiver’s accuracy at a particular location.
Reading the visualization
A line may represent one spacecraft’s orbit or an averaged plane in a large constellation. A coverage area marks geometric visibility above a selected elevation threshold, not guaranteed access to a communications service.