Inclination

About

Inclination is a concept that measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For satellites orbiting Earth directly above the Equator, the plane of the satellite's orbit aligns with Earth's equatorial plane, resulting in an orbital inclination of 0°. In the general case of a circular orbit, the path is typically tilted, spending half of its orbit over the northern hemisphere and the other half over the southern hemisphere. For example, if an orbit swings between 20° north latitude and 20° south latitude, the orbital inclination would be measured at 20°.