Atmosphere bands
The altitude ribbon groups troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere so orbit altitude can be read against atmospheric structure.
Atmosphere tracker
2D near-Earth and L2 observatory map.
Earth-orbit stations and science platforms are propagated into a live 2D tracker with atmosphere-layer context, while Webb is shown honestly in a Sun-Earth-L2 side view rather than as a fake Earth ground track.
Interpretation
How to read the atmosphere map
Ground position
ISS, Hubble, and the science-satellite sample use propagated Earth-fixed sub-satellite coordinates. They are map markers, not line-of-sight visibility predictions.
Webb treatment
Webb is kept in the Sun-Earth-L2 inset because it does not orbit in the upper atmosphere or circle Earth like ISS and Hubble.
Use case
This page is for near-Earth environment orientation: where low-orbit spacecraft sit relative to atmosphere bands, Earth rotation, and named science fleets.
Mathematical model
Satellite orbit propagation model
Satellite and observatory maps use orbital period, mean motion, altitude, and coordinate transforms. The model is a lightweight educational propagator, not a pixel drawing of a ground track.
Mean motion
\[n=\frac{2\pi}{P}\]
The phase angle advances from orbital period P. This keeps speed and repeat timing consistent with the catalog shell.
Circular speed check
\[v=\sqrt{\frac{\mu}{r}}\]
For circular shells, speed follows the gravitational parameter mu and orbital radius r. Displayed speed is checked against this relation.
Ground-track projection
\[\lambda=\operatorname{atan2}(y,x)-\omega_E t\]
Earth rotation is subtracted from the inertial longitude to draw the map track. The proof is a coordinate transform from orbit frame to rotating Earth frame.
Verification standard: the rendered object must be reproducible from stated equations, catalog parameters, or explicit geometric transforms. Visual reference images may inform presentation only; they are not the source of orbital positions, field vectors, accretion-disk gradients, timing, or engineering layout.
Limitations: browser scenes may use bounded scale, compressed distances, simplified two-body dynamics, schematic transfer curves, or educational approximations where full numerical ephemerides, CFD, finite-element models, or general-relativistic ray tracing are outside the page scope. Those simplifications are part of the model contract, not hidden image-based construction.