ROLES OF TAIWAN'S UNIVERSITIES ON EARTH OBSERVATION

摘要

The first earth observation satellite of the National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan, ROC, formerly called ROCSAT-2, has been renamed FORMOSAT-2. It is a small satellite of 746 kg mass for two remote sensing missions: earth and upward lightning observations. It had been launched successfully from Vandenberg, California on 20 May 2004. The mission orbit is sun-synchronous of 888 km altitude for exactly 14 revolutions per day. This characterizes FORMOSAT-2 the unique capability of daily revisit. 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 multi-spectral (MS) bands. For upward lightning observation, the payload is an imager of sprites and upper atmospheric lightning (ISUAL). The first earth observation image was taken on 4 June 2004. From mid-July to late August, 2004 FORMOSAT-2 successfully monitored the disasters occurred in Taiwan Island caused by typhoons Mindulle and Aere. From late December 2004 to January 2005, FORMOSAT-2 continuously observed the disastrous areas in South Asia due to an extremely strong seaquake and tsunami. Recently, FORMOSAT-2 made observation on Taiwan typhoon and New Orleans hurricane disastrous areas. After the launch of FORMOSAT-2, five domestic universities in Taiwan have signed contracts respectively with NSPO to take the roles of satellite image investigator and distributor. This paper introduces three of them: National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), National Central University (NCU), and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU). On the other hand, the first red sprite image was taken on 4 July 2004. Many upward lightning events have been observed since then. In FORMOSAT-2, ISUAL is classified as a scientific payload, although it is actually an imager to observe atmospheric natural phenomena. We shall also address this part briefly.