The orbit of geostationary satellites is much higher - around 36,000 km. The satellite is positioned directly above the equator, and its speed is presicely matched the the speed of rotation of the Earth. The result is that the satellite stays in the same location relative to the earth's surface. The satellite can continuously monitor a large area, and a few well placed satellites can cover a large part of the earth's surface. The major disadvantages are that higher latitudes are not well observed, and the higher orbit leads to lower spatial resolution.
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Geostationary satellites
Meteosat Second Generation
 "Meteosat-8")
METEOSAT-8
(Agency : ESA & EUMETSAT)
Meteosat-8 is a weather satellite jointly designed and operated by ESA (European Space Agency) and EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites). It aims at providing data for weather prediction and climate research. The onboard 12 spectral bands (visible and infra-red) radiometer provides imaging of the sea surface every 15 minutes, enabling in particular retrieving of the sea surface temperature over Atlantic ocean with a 5km resolution.