On the morning of December 9, the Gaofen-5 01A satellite left the Earth and entered space as a Long March-2 rocket blasted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi Province, north China.
The Gaofen-501A carried by the rocket is an operational satellite with powerful monitoring capabilities, covering optical bands from ultraviolet to long-wave infrared, with high spectral resolution, high precision and high sensitivity, to meet social needs such as ecological environment, national land resources, disaster and weather monitoring.
There are three payloads on board. One of them, the Environmental Monitoring Instrument II (EMI II), is an observation instrument developed by the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, for acquiring hyperspectral data in the wavelength range from ultraviolet to visible light through remote sensing to enable quantitative monitoring of the changes and global distribution of those trace components in the air, such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and formaldehyde, to offer scientific data support.
Orbital testing of the instrument and its ground systems will take several months. Thereafter, it will be used to monitor pollution reduction, environmental quality, air composition and climate change.
The team spent two years developing EMI II, which was delivered for acceptance review in January. Once in orbit, EMI II will be networked with two other instruments on board the Hyperspectral Observation Satellite launched last September, and the Atmospheric Environment Monitoring Satellite launched in April.
The network will enhance global coverage and enable daily retesting, providing strong support for reducing pollution and carbon emissions.
Environmental Monitoring Instrument II. (Image by the team)
