Thursday, April 10, 2008

FORMOSAT-2 Satellite Sensor

The first remote sensing satellite developed by National Space Organization (NSPO), FORMOSAT-2, successfully launched on May 21, 2004 with a high resolution of 2 meter panchromatic data and 8 meter multispectral satellite image data. The main mission of FORMOSAT-2 is to conduct remote sensing imaging over Taiwan and on terrestrial and oceanic regions of the entire earth.

The images captured by FORMOSAT-2 during daytime can be used for land distribution, natural resources research, forestry, environmental protection, disaster prevention, rescue work, and other applications. When the satellite travels to the eclipsed zone, it will observe natural phenomena such as lighting in the upper atmosphere which can be used for further scientific experiments. FORMOSAT-2 carries both "remote sensing" and "scientific observation" tasks in its mission. The spacecraft is operating nominally as of 2006.

The FORMOSAT-2's Image Processing System (IPS) is independently developed by NSPO. It is designed to process images by tasking the satellite according to the user's needs. Images are then taken and downloaded through X-band antenna, then crossed with through IPS such as radiometric and geometric corrections and stored in computers. These files will be delivered to the end users based on the clients' requests.

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