A terrestrial ecosystem carbon monitoring satellite was launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 11:08 am by a Long March 4B carrier rocket, and entered the planned orbit successfully.
This satellite is a forest carbon sink active and passive joint observation remote sensing satellite-terrestrial ecosystem carbon monitoring satellite.
The Directional Polarization Camera (DPC), which was equipped on it, was independently developed by a research team from Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The DPC is for obtaining multi-angle and multi-spectral polarization radiation data of the earth's atmosphere and retrieve remote sensing data of optical and physical parameters of global atmospheric aerosols and clouds, such as aerosol optical thickness, particle size distribution, refractive index, single scattering albedo and particle shape, cloud particle size distribution, cloud phase state, cloud optical thickness.
In this way, it will meet the needs of global climate change research and application, achieve high-precision atmospheric correction of other optical loads on the satellite platform, and support the observation of atmospheric parameters needed for the study of aerosol forced radiation effects.
This optimized DPC has many advantages compared with old model.
Many parameters like spatial resolution and the number of observation angles have been improved, and new function "on-orbit cloud judgment " has been added.
With the optimization, the spatial resolution of aerosol remote sensing products has been improved and the ability of air pollution monitoring has been enhanced.
Thanks to the increase of aerosol information, the DPC can better restrict the inversion of aerosol multi-parameters, which is more conducive to the inversion of surface reflectance products.
Also, the “on-orbit cloud judgment” can be used as the basis for the load switch of other optical satellites on the same satellite platform, which leads to the prolonged service life of the load in orbit.
By detecting vegetation biomass and productivity, the satellite, which is developed by the the fifth Research Institute of China's Aerospace Science and Technology Group Company, will monitor the distribution of atmospheric aerosols and continuously improve the quantitative level of land remote sensing in China, and provide operational support and research services in fields such as environmental protection, surveying and mapping, meteorology, agriculture, and disaster reduction.
A research team from Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences developed Directional Polarization Camera. (Image by HFIPS)
Directional Polarization Camera (DPC) was equipped on terrestrial ecosystem carbon monitoring satellite launched recently. (Image by HFIPS)
