Medium Earth Orbit

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Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), sometimes called Intermediate Circular Orbit (ICO), is the region of space around the Earth above low Earth orbit (2,000 kilometres (1,243 mi)) and below geostationary orbit (35,786 kilometres (22,236 mi)).^[1]

The most common use for satellites in this region is for navigation, such as the GPS (20,200 kilometres (12,552 mi)), Glonass (19,100 kilometres (11,868 mi)) and Galileo (23,222 kilometres (14,429 mi)) constellations. Communications satellites that cover the North and South Pole are also put in MEO.^[2]

The orbital periods of MEO satellites range from about two to 12 hours.^[3] Telstar, one of the first and most famous experimental satellites, orbited in MEO.^[4]

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Orbits

Types

General	Box · Circular · Non-inclined · Elliptic (Highly Elliptical) · Graveyard · Hyperbolic trajectory · Inclined · Osculating · Parabolic trajectory · Capture · Escape · Semi-synchronous · Subsynchronous · Synchronous · Parking
Geocentric	Geosynchronous · Geostationary · Sun-synchronous · Low Earth · Medium Earth · Molniya · Near equatorial · Moon · Polar · Tundra
Other	Areosynchronous · Areostationary · Halo · Lissajous · Lunar · Heliocentric · Heliosynchronous

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Parameters

Classical orbital elements
<math>i\,\!</math> Inclination
<math>\Omega\,\!</math> Longitude of the ascending node
<math>e\,\!</math> Eccentricity

<math>\omega\,\!</math> Argument of periapsis
<math>a\,\!</math> Semi-major axis
<math>M_o\,\!</math> Mean anomaly at epoch

Other parameters
<math>v\,</math> True anomaly
<math>b\,</math> Semi-minor axis
<math>\epsilon\,</math> Linear eccentricity
<math>E\,</math> Eccentric anomaly

<math>L\,</math> Mean longitude
<math>l\,</math> True longitude
<math>T\,</math> Orbital period

Maneuvers

Bi-elliptic transfer · Geostationary transfer · Gravity assist · Hohmann transfer · Inclination change · Phasing · Rendezvous