China's hyperspectral remote-sensing satellite put into use

BEIJING -- China's hyperspectral remote-sensing satellite has been officially put into use after completing in-orbit tests, according to the China National Space Administration on Tuesday.

The satellite is in good condition, its subsystems are functioning properly, and its performance meets all the standards as intended, said the CNSA.

The satellite, known as Gaofen 5 01A, was launched into space on Dec 9, 2022. It can provide high-quality hyperspectral data for diverse fields, such as environmental monitoring, natural resource surveys, and climate change studies.

The satellite provides important data support for ecological environmental protection and pollution reduction work, said Zhao Jian, director of the Earth Observation System and Data Center of the CNSA.

The CNSA also released on Tuesday the application products delivered by the satellite, including global ozone column concentration monitoring map, soil moisture monitoring map, sea ice monitoring map, water quality monitoring map and other hyperspectral data images.

"These application products are an important basis for national ecological monitoring, climate change response and natural resource surveys," Zhao said.

The satellite runs in the sun's synchronous regression orbit, 705 kilometers above Earth.

According to the CNSA, the satellite carries payloads including a camera covering visible-to-shortwave infrared spectral range, an atmospheric trace gas differential absorption spectrometer, and a wide-range thermal infrared imaging device.

The camera covering visible-to-shortwave infrared spectral range plays an important role in water pollution control, ecological environment monitoring, mineral resources surveys, etc. It has also made new progress in the monitoring of methane anomalous emission sources.

The atmospheric trace gas differential absorption spectrometer has enabled daily dynamic monitoring of ozone, nitrogen dioxide and other pollutant gases, providing important support to global atmospheric environment monitoring and governance.

Meanwhile, the wide-range thermal infrared imaging device is used in remote sensing monitoring operations, such as straw burning monitoring, sea ice monitoring, and river and sea outfall monitoring.

With all the payloads, the satellite has achieved the global coverage of atmospheric environmental soundings once a day and global round-the-clock coverage of the land surface environment once every two days, said Zhao.

Launched in 2010, the Gaofen project has become the backbone network of China's high-resolution Earth observation system. It has promoted the construction of a national space infrastructure system integrating satellite communication, satellite remote sensing and satellite navigation.