Significant progress has been made in improving the imaging capabilities of Formosat-5, a National Space Organization (NSPO) official said yesterday, adding that the imagery can be used for disaster prevention.
Formosat-5, the nation’s first domestically developed satellite, was launched on Aug. 25 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It was designed to deliver black-and-white images with 2m resolution and color images with 4m resolution.
While the images transmitted on Sept. 8 were blurry and tainted with light spots, NSPO officials denied there were any defects in any of the satellite’s components.
Photo: CNA
Later that month, the agency formed an advisory body of nine experts who offered advice on image adjustment and on identifying the cause of the imaging problem.
Images from Formosat-5 have achieved 5m resolution in color and 3m resolution in black and white when they are properly processed, NSPO Deputy Director-General Yu Shiann-jen (余憲政) told a news conference in Taipei.
While the images are sufficient for disaster prevention, urban planning and mapping would require greater resolution, he said.
Over the past three months, the agency has adopted three improvement measures: adjusting the temperature of the imaging facility, changing the altitude of the satellite and processing images through “deconvolution,” Yu said, adding that only the last measure worked well.
He illustrated the improvement by showing images taken by the satellite of Taipei, Nantou County, San Francisco International Airport and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, which were clearer than their counterparts from September.
The agency has collected more than 1,000 sets of images from the satellite, Yu said.
Davis-Monthan — best known for its so-called “boneyard” for decommissioned US government aircraft — has since the 1970s become the US military’s reference site to test aerial images, said National Chiao Tung University professor Shih Tien-yuan (史天元), a member of the advisory body.
While the root cause of the focus problem has yet to be confirmed, vibration during the satellite’s launch is one possible factor, National Central University professor Liang Chao-wen (梁肇文) said, adding that the design, composition and testing procedures of the satellite would be re-examined.
To make image processing more efficient, the agency plans to purchase new equipment with graphics processing unit systems next year, Yu said.
Asked whether the agency has a timetable for the problem to be completely fixed, Yu said it hopes to make images available to clients in August or September next year, while admitting that the time frame would be a two-month delay.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS