The images taken by Taiwan’s first indigenously developed satellite, Formosat-5, has been used to calculate underwater topography and monitor rice production after it became commercially operational last year, and its performance is comparable to that of a US high-resolution satellite, the National Space Organization (NSPO) said yesterday.
The NSPO, a National Applied Research Laboratories affiliate, yesterday at a news conference in Taipei touted the academic applications of images taken by Formosat-5.
The optical remote sensing satellite was launched on Aug. 25, 2017, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on a Falcon 9 rocket built by Space Exploration Technologies Corp, commonly known as SpaceX.
Photo courtesy of the National Space organization
It became commercially operational in September last year, and has been transmitting black-and-white images with a resolution of 2m and color images with a resolution of 4m.
Huang Chih-yuan (黃智遠), an associate professor at National Central University’s Center for Space and Remote Sensing Research, said that his team used the satellite images to map the underwater topography around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙) using an “artificial neural network” computing method.
Compared with WorldView-2, a commercial imaging satellite with better resolutions, Formosat-5 images only have a margin of error of up to 40cm, meaning the two perform similarly, he said.
Photo: Chan Shih-hung, Taipei Times
Whether the difference matters depends on areas of application, he added.
While the satellite cannot take underwater images as deep as sonar equipment, it can save costs for in situ surveys of places where the topological relief is not that significant, he added.
Chu Tzu-how (朱子豪), a professor at National Taiwan University’s Spatial Information Research Center, said that his team used the satellite images to calculate the areas of rice fields in Taiwan, with an accuracy level of 90.05 percent.
The Agricultural Research Institute in August sparked controversy when it was found to have attempted to buy images sourced from a China-based firm for monitoring crop production.
Only China’s Zhuhai-1 remote sensing satellite constellation could satisfy the institute’s requirements for image resolution better than 10m with more than 30 wavebands, the institute said at the time.
Asked about the issue yesterday, Chu said that purchases of satellite images can be purely commercial transactions, avoiding confidential data.
Countries owning satellites also share information for disaster-relief purposes, he added.
While Formosat-5 has only four wavebands, they are sufficient for most agricultural survey missions, he said.
The NSPO is planning to launch 10 satellites from this year through 2028: six high-resolution satellites, two ultra-high-resolution satellites and two synthetic aperture radar satellites, NSPO Director-General Lin Chun-liang (林俊良) said.
It is also updating its integration and testing facilities for satellite instruments, and preparing standard specification guidelines for the manufacture of related components, Lin added.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique