All six of Taiwan’s Formosat-7/COSMIC-2 satellites, which were launched to improve weather forecasting, have reached their mission orbits, the Ministry of Science and Technology said in a statement yesterday.
The satellites, launched by Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) to an orbit 720km from Earth in June 2019, have been gradually moved to their designated mission orbits of 540km to 550km over the past 18 months, the statement said, adding that the process was completed on Wednesday last week.
The project is a joint operation between the National Space Organization and the US’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to improve weather data collection in the tropics, the ministry said.
Photo: CNA
By moving into their mission orbits, the satellites can better cover the area 50 degrees north and south of the equator and make up for a lack of weather data there.
Data collected by the constellation of six satellites were first made available on a trial basis in December 2019, before being made public on March 7 last year, the ministry said, adding that the data have already helped improve the accuracy of weather forecasts by 10 to 11 percent.
According to the National Space Organization, the satellite constellation can “receive GPS signals from the United States and [Global Navigation Satellite System] signals from Russia,” and “by measuring radio occultation signals, atmospheric parameters such as humidity and the electron concentration of the ionosphere can be derived.”
It can collect 4,000 pieces of data per day, the ministry said.
This means forecasters can use the information to better predict the formation of typhoons and their movements, it said.
In addition to the Central Weather Bureau, and research teams at National Central University and National Cheng Kung University, research bodies under the NOAA and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, as well as meteorological organizations around the world are using data collected by Formosat-7, the ministry said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS