- Earth-watching satellite
- HIMAWARI 4 (GMS 4)
- NORAD 20217
- 1989-070A
- Inclined geosynchronous
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Gulf of Thailand
Orbit ends over the Bay of Bengal
In the Earth’s shadow since
Back in sunlight
In view from you
Nobody watches Himawari 4 go over, but a receiver still asks whether it is above the horizon. Say where you are and this card answers.
Your position is rounded to about a kilometre and sent only to the Orbinauts API, to find the pass.
No brightness has been published for Himawari 4, so it is not a naked-eye satellite and no city page carries pass times for it. Nothing here estimates one.
Seeing it
There is nothing to go outside for: it is too faint for the naked eye. What it is up there for reaches the ground as pictures and measurements, not as a light in the sky.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over the Bay of Bengal LIVE
Where is Himawari 4?
At 5:36:55 PM UTC Himawari 4 was over the Bay of Bengal (12.6° N, 91.9° E), 36,618 km up, moving at 3.05 km/s and in the Earth’s shadow.
What is Himawari 4?
A satellite that watches the Earth in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, in space since Sep 5, 1989.
Can I see Himawari 4?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Himawari 4, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- National Space Development Adminstration
- State
- Japan (Nippon), State of
- Built by
- Nippon Electric Corp., Space Div., Kamoi Works
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- 325 kg
- Operating
- Orbit class
- Inclined geosynchronous
From GCAT, Jonathan McDowell’s general catalogue, licensed CC BY 4.0: the operator, the state, the manufacturer, what it is for, the launch day, the mass, and whether it is operating. The orbit class is read from its current elements.
Latest orbital data
- Position received
- 5:36 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:36 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 12.6° N, 91.9° E
- Altitude
- 36,618 km
- Speed
- 3.05 km/s (10,962 km/h)
- Course
- north
- Light
- In the Earth’s shadow until 6:09 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 14.7°
- Orbital period
- 1,478.3 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 0.97
- This orbit
- 36,422 to 36,796 km
- In shadow
- 62 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,960 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 1:10 AM, 16 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 1:10 AM, 16 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Himawari 4, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Himawari 4 has been reported publicly in the past thirty days.
From Space-Track’s public conjunction messages; the latest report was issued Nov 8, 2026, 1:11 PM, 3 hours old. Only approaches serious enough to be reported publicly are listed: within three days and, for two bodies near the Earth, closer than a kilometre with a chance of a collision above 1 in 10,000, the level at which NASA moves the ISS.
Launched with
Himawari 4 shares its launch, 1989-070, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| HIMAWARI 4 AKM | Rocket body |
Read from the international designators of the US catalogue: the year and the launch number every piece of one launch shares. A body that has come down is no longer listed.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Himawari 4 | 36,422 to 36,796 km | 1,478 minutes | 325 kg | 1989 |
| GOES-19 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 5 t | 2024 |
| Meteosat-12 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 3.8 t | 2022 |
| Meteosat-11 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 2 t | 2015 |
| GOES-16 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 5.2 t | 2016 |
| GOES-17 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 5.2 t | 2018 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 1:10 AM, 16 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "HIMAWARI 4 (GMS 4)",
"OBJECT_ID": "1989-070A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T01:10:31.412352",
"MEAN_MOTION": 0.97410937,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00435333,
"INCLINATION": 14.7256,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 345.8199,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 152.5329,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 26.8703,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 20217,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 13394,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -8.9e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}