ECLIPSE

The obscuring of one celestial body by another. See lunar eclipse or solar eclipse.

The earth's equator (and therefore a geostationary satellite's orbit) is inclined to the orbit of the earth around the sun. This inclination allows sunlight to power the satellite on-board systems for most of the year. However, there is a period of about 3 weeks either side of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes when a satellite will be in the earth's shadow for about 70 minutes each day (around local midnight). Because most of these platforms do not carry sufficient battery power to tide them over this gap, no imagery is generated and thus a local-midnight image is missing.