The six-satellite Formosat-7/COSMIC-2 constellation would start relaying weather data to global users from January next year, seven months after its launch, the National Space Organization (NSPO) said yesterday.
The constellation was launched on June 25 by SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to an orbit 720km from Earth.
It is the biggest recent scientific collaboration between Taiwan and the US, for which each nation spent NT$3.2 billion (US$102.9 million at the current exchange rate). The NSPO and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration serve as the executive agencies.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Formosat-7 is tasked with gathering weather data from regions above and below the 50° north and south latitudes through radio occultation techniques, and is expected to collect nearly 4,000 data entries per day — three or four times more than its predecessor, Formosat-3/COSMIC, which was launched in 2006, the NSPO said.
After Formosat-7 on Tuesday last week collected its first atmospheric and ionospheric profiling data, its six satellites have started descending from their initial orbits at 720km to their respective orbits at 550km, it said.
It would take nearly 19 months for the satellites to settle in their designed orbits, the NSPO said.
Data they collect would be available for global meteorological researchers from January next year, even though they were not collected evenly, it said.
To access the data free of charge, users must verify their accounts with the Taiwan Analysis Center for COSMIC — an agency organized by the NSPO and Central Weather Bureau — and the COSMIC Data Analysis and Archive Center founded by the US University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, NSPO Deputy Director-General Yu Shiann-jen (余憲政) said.
COSMIC stands for Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate.
Each of Formosat-7’s satellites is equipped with three scientific payloads — a Tri-GNSS Radio Occultation System, an ion velocity meter and a radio frequency beacon — which are managed by the US Air Force, the organization said.
In addition to the US Global Positioning System, Formosat-7 is also compatible with the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System, it added.
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