China launched a new high-resolution Synthetic1 Aperture2 Radar3 (SAR) imaging satellite from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern Shanxi Province on Wednesday.
本周三，中国在山西太原卫星发射中心发射一颗高分辨率合成孔径雷达成像卫星。
The Gaofen-3 satellite was launched off on the back of a Long March 4C rocket at 6:55 a.m. Beijing time, according to the center. It was the 233rd flight mission by a Long March carrier rocket.
As China's first SAR imaging satellite that is accurate to one meter in distance, it covers the globe with an all-weather, 24-hour observation service and will be used for disaster warning, weather forecasting, water resource
assessments4, and the protection of
maritime5 rights.
Compared with optical imaging satellites, Gaofen-3 will better perform disaster monitoring as the SAR imaging satellite is capable of imaging in severe weather conditions as it uses microwave transmission.
"The launch of Gaofen-3 is expected to reduce
dependence6 on data provided by foreign microwave imaging satellites," said Jiang Xingwei, deputy chief engineer of Gaofen satellite application system.
With 12 imaging modes, Gaofen-3 has the most imaging modes in the SAR imaging satellite family. The high-definition observation satellite is capable of switching freely between various imaging modes, taking wide pictures of both earth and sea, and
detailed7 photographs of specific areas.
According to Yu Weidong, deputy chief engineer of Gaofen-3 satellite system payload, Gaofen-3's
spatial8 resolution ranges from one meter to 500 meters and its largest viewing swath is 650 kilometers.
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