An atmospheric environment monitoring satellite was sent into space by the Long March-4C rocket lifting off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi Province.
Five atmospheric environment monitoring payloads are carried on the satellite orbiting the Earth. Three of which are developed by the Hefei Institutes of Physical Sciences (HFIPS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Their names are environmental Monitoring Instrument (EMI), Directional Polarization Camera (DPC) and Particle Observation scanning Polarization Meter (POSP). They are working independently to monitor the air pollutants at global scale.
It can cover the entire earth in one day and has a minimum spectral resolution of 0.6 nanometer, with a maximum field of view of 2,600 kilometers. It enables EMI to accurately identify unique information in the absorption spectra and then detect and monitor polluted gases such as nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and formaldehyde.
Researchers at HFIPS proposed an innovative detection program called “Crossfire”, for DPC and POSP. It combines the spatio-temporal distribution of global atmospheric aerosols and clouds obtained by DPC instrument and the high-precision atmospheric aerosol parameters obtained by the POSP instrument across orbit.
The “Polarized Crossfire” detection program of DPC and POSP is used for the first time worldwide to achieve quantitative observation of PM2.5. It thus met the needs of global climate change research, atmospheric environment monitoring and high-precision atmospheric correction of remote sensing data.
The atmospheric environment monitoring satellite has entered orbit, as the world’s first satellite to detect carbon dioxide via laser technology. It provides data support for China’s atmospheric environment monitoring, global climate change research, crop yield estimation and agricultural disaster monitoring, while going around the earth.
