Satellite revisit period

{{More citations needed|date=December 2009}}

The satellite revisit period is the time elapsed between observations of the same point on Earth by a satellite.{{Cite book |last=Raizer |first=Victor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VtqMDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Satellite+revisit+time%22&pg=PA161 |title=Optical Remote Sensing of Ocean Hydrodynamics |date=2019-03-04 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1-351-11917-7 |pages=161 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last1=Demyanov |first1=Vladislav |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-mD9DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Satellite+revisit+time%22&pg=PA115 |title=Satellites Missions and Technologies for Geosciences |last2=Becedas |first2=Jonathan |date=2020-07-22 |publisher=BoD – Books on Demand |isbn=978-1-78985-995-9 |language=en}} It depends on the satellite's orbit, target location, and swath of the sensor.

"Revisit" is related to the same ground trace, a projection of the satellite's orbit on to the Earth. Revisit requires a very close repeat of the ground trace. In the case of polar orbit or highly inclined low-Earth-orbit reconnaissance satellites, the sensor must have the variable swath, to look longitudinally (east-west, or sideways) at a target, in addition to direct overflight observation, looking nadir.

In the case of the Israeli EROS Earth observation satellite, the ground trace repeat is 15 days, but the actual revisit time is 3 days, because of the swath ability of the camera payload.