As the orbital period of a satellite increases, approaching the rotational period of the Earth (in other words, as its average orbital speed slows towards the rotational speed of the Earth), its sinusoidal ground track will become compressed longitudinally, meaning that the "nodes" (the points at which it crosses the equator) will become closer together, until at geosynchronous orbit they lie directly on top of each other. For orbital periods "longer" than the Earth's rotational period, an increase in orbital period corresponds to a longitudinal stretching out of the (apparent retrograde) ground track.