China receives imagery from high-resolution remote sensing satellites

BEIJING –China has received images from a pair of 0.5-meter high-resolution remote sensing satellites launched in late December last year, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) said Wednesday.

Tourists were seen visiting the Potala Palace in Tibet Autonomous Region in the captured images.

The satellites, SuperView-1 01/02, on the back of a Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi Province .

The two are operating at an altitude of 500 kilometers, with a panchromatic resolution of 0.5 meters and multispectral resolution of two meters, said Zhang Xiaomin, vice general manager of the Dongfanghong Satellite Co., Ltd under the CASC.

The China Siwei Surveying and Mapping Technology Co. Ltd, which is also under the CASC, is in charge of commercial operation of the satellites.

Xu Wen, general manager of China Siwei, said the satellites will provide services in a number of fields from environmental monitoring to disaster mitigation.

In China, there is a huge demand on remote sensing data, which, until now, came from foreign sources.