Why does the GEDI orbit footprint look the way it does? 

GEDI produces high resolution laser ranging observations of the Earth's forests and topography. GEDI was deployed to the International Space Station in 2018, and captures data along the ISS orbit shown here. When viewed in two dimensions, the ISS orbit resembles a net of offset waves This animation shows a full GEDI orbit footprint from early 2019. The ISS orbit defines GEDI coverage between 51.6 degrees, north and south.