The nation’s first domestically developed satellite, Formosat-5, has taken images at the resolution it was designed to deliver, but only “when weather conditions are good,” Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) officials said yesterday, adding it has completed its mission of capturing satellite images of Taiwan.
The satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Aug. 25 last year, but the first images it transmitted back in September last year were fuzzy and marred by light spots.
Since then, the National Space Organization (NSPO) has been working to improve its image quality using image processing software and by adjusting the satellite’s altitude, angle and the temperature of its imaging device.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
At a news conference in Taipei yesterday, project director Chang Ho-pen (張和本) said the satellite has achieved the resolution it was designed to produce — 2m for black-and-white images and 4m for color images — when the weather permits.
“For example, the satellite images taken from above China and from above California can be very different when the former has serious air pollution,” Chang said.
Yet, the NSPO has not quantified what weather conditions would allow the satellite to transmit images at its default resolution, he added.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
The satellite’s images have already proven sufficient in supporting the nation’s disaster prevention missions, and would be available on the organization’s Web site from September, he said, adding that the US, Japan, Russia and Australia have expressed an interest in purchasing the images.
Asked if Formosat-5’s performance has achieved the ministry’s objectives, Chang said “yes,” while Minister of Science and Technology Chen Liang-gee (陳良基) gave a more reserved response.
The imaging capabilities of Formosate-5 have surpassed those of Formosat-2, which has a 2m resolution for monochromatic images and 8m for colored ones, Chen said.
However, when compared with the US Army’s stricter requirements, it only achieves a 3m resolution for black-and-white images and 5m for colored ones, he said.
As the NSPO is planning to launch one satellite per year in the following 10 years, it will pay more attention to the mechanical adjustment and microwave sensing capabilities of satellites, Chen said.
Meanwhile, Formosat-5, which passes over the same spot on Earth every two days, has finished taking remote images of Taiwan during its orbits between September and December last year, he said.
The ministry presented a complete satellite image of Taiwan to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday, with Tsai promising to support its space programs, Chen added.
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
ALLEGED SABOTAGE: The damage inflicted by the vessel did not affect connection, as data were immediately rerouted to other cables, Chunghwa Telecom said Taiwan suspects that a Chinese-owned cargo vessel damaged an undersea cable near its northeastern coast on Friday, in an alleged act of sabotage that highlights the vulnerabilities of Taipei’s offshore communications infrastructure. The ship is owned by a Hong Kong-registered company whose director is Chinese, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. An unidentified Taiwanese official cited in the report described the case as sabotage. The incident followed another Chinese vessel’s suspected involvement in the breakages of data cables in the Baltic Sea in November last year. While fishing trawlers are known to sometimes damage such equipment, nation states have also
RSS