Abstract
FORMOSAT-2 (was called ROCSAT-2 formerly) of Taiwan’s National Space Organization (NSPO) is a small satellite of 746 kg mass for two remote sensing missions. Its mission orbit is sun-synchronous of 891 km altitude for exactly 14 revolutions per day. For earth observation, the payload is an advanced high resolution remote sensing instrument (RSI) with ground sampling distance (GSD) 2 m in panchromatic (PAN) band and 8 m in four multi-spectral (MS) bands. For upward lightning observation, the payload is an imager of sprites and upper atmospheric lightning (ISUAL). Launch date of FORMOSAT-2 was on 20 May 2004. After nearly 3 years of mission operations in orbit, i.e., more than one half of the mission life of 5 years, it is a proper time to assess and evaluate its worldwide effectiveness in Earth observation. To evaluate the effectiveness of developing a satellite, especially to a country with very limited resources such as Taiwan, we need to include all aspects. This paper gives the global effectiveness of FORMOSAT-2 a rather detailed assessment from the following areas: public education in Taiwan, Earth science and ecological niche research, preservation of the world heritages, contribution to the International Charter: space and major disasters, observation of suspected north Korea and Iranian nuclear facilities, and scientific observation of the atmospheric transient luminous events (TLEs). It can be concluded that FORMOSAT-2’s global effectiveness is pronounced and definitely promised. The development of FORMOSAT-2 is very valuable, not only to Taiwan but also to the whole world.
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References
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Chern, JS., Wu, AM., Liu, YN., Wu, L. (2008). An Introduction to FORMOSAT-2’s Global Effectiveness. In: Sandau, R., Röser, HP., Valenzuela, A. (eds) Small Satellites for Earth Observation. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6943-7_34
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6943-7_34
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