China and Brazil have confirmed that they will launch at least
three more Earth observation satellites in the "near future" to
form a remote-sensing system that will be both competitive and
compatible with the world's needs, sources said at a Beijing
seminar yesterday.
The new satellites will enable the two developing nations to
reduce their dependence on the use of remote-sensing images
provided by developed countries, diplomats and experts said.
The first China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS) was
launched in 1999, and the two countries plan to launch CBERS-2 late
this year to further research the Earth's surface, said Guo
Jianning, director of the China Center for
Resource Satellite Data and Applications.
Gilberto Camara, director for Earth observation at Brazil's
National Institute for Space Research (INPE), said: "We have
completed the final design review for CBERS-2 and are already
working on the CBERS-3 and CBERS-4 satellites."
The future satellites will greatly improve the capacity for
observing the Earth, Camara said.
He said he expected CBERS to become the most used remote-sensing
satellite by 2010 -- not only by Brazil and China, but also by many
other countries.
China and Brazil pooled their technical skills and financial
resources in the late 1980s to initiate the CBERS program.
The first satellite has generated a tremendous amount of data
since 2000, the year after it was launched into space, Guo told a
gathering to promote the application of CBERS images.
CBERS-1 has provided 140 users in China with more than 8,000
images, covering 99 percent of Chinese territory.
The satellite data has proven important to the country's
macroeconomic policy making and the construction of key
infrastructure projects, Guo said.
In Brazil, CBERS images have been used to monitor deforestation,
plan land use and analyze the environment, according to Leila
Fonseca of Brazil's National Institute for Space Research.
The CBERS program represents one of the most successful
cooperation partnerships between two developing countries, said
Edson Marinho Duarte Monteiro, the charge d'affaires of the
Brazilian Embassy in Beijing.
Thanks to the project, Brazil has been able to "smoothly
overcome a long dependence on the use of remote-sensing images
(from developed countries)," he said.
The launch of the CBERS series of satellites will usher China
into an era when the bulk of its remote-sensing data needs no
longer to be bought from abroad, said Hu Ruzhong of the China
Remote-Sensing Application Association.
(China Daily July 23, 2003)