Formosat-8, Taiwan’s first domestically made remote-sensing satellite cluster system, would greatly enhance capabilities in handling disaster relief and national security incidents with its enhanced resolution, the Taiwan Space Agency said yesterday.
The first satellite of the system, which is named “Chi Po-Lin Satellite (齊柏林衛星)” after the deceased Taiwanese aerial photographer, has been delivered to the US for a scheduled launch this month.
Formosat-8 consists of a constellation of eight optical remote sensing satellites, including six satellites with a native resolution of 1m and two with native resolution of smaller than 1m. They would be deployed in a sun-synchronous orbit approximately 561km above the Earth’s surface, with full deployment expected by 2031.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Space Agency
The first satellite of the constellation can achieve a native ground resolution of 1m, Formosat-8 project manager Cynthia Liu (劉小菁) said, adding that the resolution could reach 0.7m after post-processing.
The resolution of other satellites in the system would gradually reach 0.5m, better than the 2m of the Formosat-5 system, Liu said.
“With Formosat-5, one can see cars moving on freeways from space, but Formosat-8 allows them to go further to distinguish trucks, cars and other vehicles,” she said.
When planning disaster relief operations, government officials can gauge the scale of damage in affected areas using Formosat-8, enabling them to formulate more precise strategies, she said.
Meanwhile, Formosat-8 has a greater number of multispectral bands, enabling officials to distinguish plants from non-plants and even identify vegetation types, Liu said.
The first batch of remote-sensing images produced by Formosat-5 were blurry and exhibited lens flare, which was corrected after component calibration, orbital adjustments and post-processing, she said.
To avoid these issues, the project team decided to use a high-quality collimator, which is calibrated every six months or after earthquakes, Liu said.
Additionally, a thermal focus adjustment mechanism was incorporated into the optical design, allowing the team to correct slight defocusing on orbit after launch, ensuring proper focus, she said.
The Formosat-8 constellation has a higher revisit frequency than Formosat-5, Liu said.
With only one satellite, Formosat-5 passes above Taiwan approximately once every two days, Liu said.
“When all eight satellites in space, Formosat-8 can capture images from space three times a day,” she said, adding that the high revisit frequency would also greatly relieve problems caused by images obscured by clouds.
Formosat-8 would be used to support surveillance operations of the Ministry of National Defense, Liu said.
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