GF Series
l GF Series
GF series satellites were developed under the background of ‘The National Medium- and Long-Term Program for Science and Technology Development (2006-2020)’. GF-1 satellites take the advantages of platform’s high bearing capability, carrying two HR imagers and four wide-swath imagers. Its resolution is 2m PAN/8m MS with 60km swath and 16m MS with 800km swath. GF-1 was launched in April 2013.GF-6 has realized the domestic development of 8-spectrum CMOS detectors, and the "red-edge" band, which can effectively reflect the unique spectral characteristics of crops，contributing to precision agriculture. GF-6 and GF-1 satellites operate in constellation in-orbit, which greatly improve the monitoring capacity of agricultural, dynamic monitoring of environment protection, national security, city land utilization and so on.
GF-6
Image of Zhangjiajie, China
l GF-2 satellite
GF-2 is a series of high-resolution optical Earth observation satellites of CNSA (China National Space Administration), the mission goal of GF-2 to implement sub-meter level, high geographical accuracy Earth surface imaging, promoting application of CHEOS (China High Resolution Earth Observation System) satellites and its social and economic benefits. GF-2 is part of the CHEOS family with the objective to provide high accuracy geographical mapping, land and resource surveying, environment change monitoring, near realtime observation for disaster prevention and mitigation, as well as for agriculture and forest estimation.
GF-2 operates in the 631 km Sun synchronous orbit, with5~8 years of design life and 2100kg total weight. It employs the CAST-CS-L3000A bus and two PAN/MS cameras. Many critical technologies have been brokenthrough, which include full link image quality simulation, high resolution light weight camera acquirement, long-focus large f-number camera and satellite system design, high accuracy and high stability attitude maneuvering, high accuracy image geolocation, long life ad high reliability LEO remote sensing satellite engineering, and so on. the capable of collecting images with a GSD (Ground Sampling Distance) of 0.81 m in panchromatic and 3.24 m in the multispectral bands on a swath of 45 km，the image positioning accuracy without ground control point is less than 50m. China’s civil remote sensing image data relied mainly on imported data has been completely changed. China’s high resolution remotes sensing satellite engineering and application capabilities have been promoted to a new level.
Artist's rendering of GF-2 in orbit
A fused true color image of Lanzhou in Gansu province
A fused true color image of Shenzhen
The monitoring of cage aquaculture
The monitoring of lake size and lake vegetation
The monitoring of underwater sewage outlet
l GF-3 satellite
GF-3 satellite has 12 imaging modes, such as strip-map, spotlight and scan SAR, with the capability of 1 - 500 m resolution and 10 - 650 km swath. GF-3 can acquire global land and ocean information under all-weather conditions and all day long. The C band multi-polarization microwave remote sensing information can be used in many fields such as oceanography, disaster reduction, water conservancy and meteorology, providing important technical support for marine development, land environment monitoring and disaster prevention and mitigation.
Artist's rendering of GF-3 in orbit
l GFDM-1 satellite
As the highest resolution earth observation system of the China’s civilian space infrastructure, GFDM-1 satellite has been endowed with the important task of realizing the self-sufficiency of the remote sensing images with resolution higher than 0.5m, and also plays a leading and promoting role of relevant technologies. The spatial resolution and the agile imaging ability of GFDM-1 have reached internationally-advanced level. Great technical achievements have been made； it should effectively promote the construction of high resolution earth observation system and accelerate the quantitative application of remote sensing images.
GFDM-1 operates in the 644 km Sun synchronous orbit, with 8 years of design life and 2400kg total weight. It employs the middle-size agile satellite bus 、 a high-resolution camera and a synchronization monitoring atmosphere corrector, etc. capable of collecting images with 1 panchromatic band and 8 multispectral bands, the GSD (Ground Sampling Distance) of 0.81 m in panchromatic and 3.24 m in the multispectral bands, the image positioning accuracy without ground control point is less than 5m. The agile image mode is flexible and plentiful, which can provide single-pass targets，Single-pass strip，Single-pass stereo/multi-view， non-along-track active scanning image model, task management is efficient and intelligence, and the imaging efficiency is improved substantially. GFDM-1 satellite has been used in Natural Resources，Emergency Management，Agriculture and Rural Affairs，Ecology and Environment，Housing and Urban-Rural Development，F(xiàn)orestry and Grassland，etc. it accelerates the quantitative application of the remote sensing images, and it shows that the application will have tremendous potential.
Artist's rendering of GFDM-1 in orbit
A panchromatic image of Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport acquired by GFDM, taken on Aug 25th 2020
A fused true color image of Lujiazui in Shanghai, with high spatial resolution of panchromatic images and color information of multispectral images, taken on Aug 21st 2021
A fused true color image of Bahrain, taken on Sept 8th 2020
A fused image of Love Lake Dubai, taken on Aug 31st 2020
A fused image of Kunming Dianchi Lake International Convention and Exhibition Centre, taken on Apr 24th 2021
A fused NIR-Red Edge-Red multispectral image of the borderline between Germany and Netherlands, taken on Jul 20th 2020
A 3D model of China Zun Tower in Beijing built using stereo imaging data, taken on Sept 7th 2020
l GF-7 satellite
GF-7 satellite is the first civilian high resolution stereo mapping satellite with the GSD (Ground Sampling Distance) in sub-meter. It was successfully launched on November 3rd, 2019. The mission of GF-7 is to provide high resolution stereo images and laser altimetry data for generating 1 to 10000 scale-based maps over china.
GF-7 satellite operates in the 506 km Sun synchronous orbit, with 8 years of design life and 2699kg total weight. By carrying a two-line array camera and a laser altimetry, it adopts a new surveying and mapping system combined with active and passive remote sensing. In addition, it employs a series of advanced and innovative technologies, such as high-precision internal/external element stability design, high-precision attitude stability control, the first X-band adaptive high-rate data transmission system, and on-board intelligent satellite management system. It can provide stereo mapping image with swath of 20 km and resolution higher than 0.8m; as well as laser altimetry data with elevation accuracy better than 1m.
GF-7 satellite opened the new era of 1 to 10000 scale-based mapping over china, and plays an important role in the survey of natural resources and housing and urban-rural development. It serves urban agglomeration development planning, ecological environment protection, agricultural and rural construction, and traffic information construction.
Artist's rendering of GF-7
A stereo image acquired by GF-7
A relief map of DSM acquire by GF-7
A relief map of DEM acquire by GF-7
A fused true color orthoimage acquired by GF-7