Sino-France satellite for ocean study launched
Print Edition
CHINA successfully sent an ocean-observing satellite into space yesterday, a joint mission pursued under close Sino-French space cooperation that will enable scientists to simultaneously study, for the first time, ocean surface winds and waves.
The China-France Oceanography Satellite (CFOSat), atop a Long March-2C carrier rocket, took off at 8:43am from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China’s Gobi Desert and entered a sun-synchronous orbit 520km above Earth.
Jointly developed by the China National Space Administration and the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, France’s space agency, the satellite will conduct 24-hour observations of global wave spectrums, effective wave height and ocean surface wind fields, said Zhao Jian, a senior official with CNSA.
As the first satellite-related cooperation between China and France, the CFOSat is equipped with the world’s most advanced technologies. It carries two innovative radar instruments — a wind scatterometer developed by China to measure the strength and direction of winds and a wave spectrometer developed by France to survey the length, height and direction of waves, according to Wang Lili, chief designer of the satellite at the China Academy of Space Technology.
Winds and waves data
The two instruments will simultaneously help scientists collect data about winds and waves at the same location for the first time, Wang said.
Winds generate waves, and waves, in turn, modify the surface layer of the atmosphere above the ocean.
Therefore, more and more often, meteorological and wave forecasts take into consideration modeling and predictions of both ocean surface winds and waves.
Related forecasts have been enhanced significantly in the last decade, but the prediction accuracy still needs to be improved, especially in extreme events, such as typhoons and rapidly evolving storms.
The CFOSat, complementing other existing oceanography satellites, will study the dynamics of waves and how they interact with surface winds, and deepen our understanding of their formation and physical mechanism, said Zhao Jian with CNSA.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron yesterday exchanged congratulations on the successful launch.
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