Each satellite orbits Earth on a circular path; its sensor footprint sweeps a swath of ground beneath it. A storm cell is only "seen" (nowcast-updated) when a satellite footprint currently overlaps it. More satellites, more orbital planes, and lower altitude (narrower orbital period, but also narrower swath) all change how often any given point gets revisited.
T = 2*pi*sqrt((R_earth+h)^3 / (G*M_earth)) (orbital period, Kepler)
swath_width ~ 2*h*tan(sensor_half_angle)
revisit_time ~ orbit_period / (satellites_per_plane * planes covering that latitude)
- Swarm size - total number of satellites, spread evenly across the chosen number of planes; more satellites means more simultaneous footprints and shorter average revisit gaps.
- Orbital altitude - sets both the orbital period (via Kepler's third law) and the sensor footprint size, trading revisit frequency against ground resolution.
- Orbital planes - spreads satellites across multiple orbital inclinations/planes so a storm isn't only monitored by a single repeating ground track.
- Sim speed - accelerates simulated time so you can watch multiple orbits and revisit events within seconds.
Real-world application: this constellation-coverage tradeoff is exactly what companies and agencies solve when designing smallsat swarms for hourly (rather than twice-daily) severe-weather nowcasting, filling gaps between traditional geostationary weather satellites.