IDL Demo Library

Orbiting Satellite

This demo shows a satellite in orbit around the Earth.

The objects (Earth and satellite) are subject to 3 fundamental operations:

Scaling

The size of the satellite can be scaled.

Translation

The satellite position changes over time.

Rotation

The Earth, clouds, and the satellite all rotate. Notice that the rotation rate of the clouds is greater than of the Earth.

The satellite's orbit parameters at the epoch time are:

You can rotate the entire image by positioning the mouse in the draw widget, holding down the left mouse button, and dragging the mouse.

Menu Options

File Menu

Select "Quit" to exit the demo.

About Menu

Select "About Orbiting Satellite" to display this help text.

Features

Start button

Start the animation.

Stop button

Stop the animation.

Reset button

Reset the initial orientation of the satellite and the earth.

Scaling slider

Adjust the slider to scale the size of the satellite in the range 0.75 to 1.25.

Animation step slider

Adjust the slider to control the size of the "steps" the satellite takes in its orbit. A smaller value for the step means the satellite moves less distance with each translation, resulting in a smoother animation.

Left Mouse Button

Click-drag-release will rotate the whole view.

  IDL Demo Online Help (October 11, 2006)