{"id":11509,"date":"2021-08-19T19:05:24","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T11:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/china-launches-two-radar-mapping-satellites\/"},"modified":"2021-08-19T19:05:24","modified_gmt":"2021-08-19T11:05:24","slug":"china-launches-two-radar-mapping-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/china-launches-two-radar-mapping-satellites\/","title":{"rendered":"China launches two radar mapping satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_53005\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-53005\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-53005\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/th2launch.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"590\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/th2launch.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/th2launch-300x177.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/th2launch-678x400.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/th2launch-768x453.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-53005\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Long March 4B rocket launches a pair of Tianhui 2 mapping satellites. Credit: CASC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>China launched a Long March 4B rocket Wednesday carrying two Tianhui radar mapping satellites into orbit more than 300 miles in altitude.<\/p>\n<p>The two satellites will join a similar pair of spacecraft launched in April 2019, working in tandem to bounce radar beams off Earth\u2019s surface to generate detailed three-dimensional global maps.<\/p>\n<p>The satellite mapping system uses a technique called interferometric synthetic aperture radar to gather stereo data for 3D topographic maps. The data will be used by Chinese military and civilian agencies.<\/p>\n<p>The two new Tianhui 2 satellites, known as the Tianhui 2-02 pair, took off at 6:32 p.m. EDT (2232 GMT) Wednesday from the Taiyuan launch base in northern China\u2019s Shanxi province atop a Long March 4B rocket.<\/p>\n<p>Liftoff occurred at 6:32 a.m. Thursday Beijing time, kicking off China\u2019s 29th orbital launch attempt of the year.<\/p>\n<p>The three-stage, liquid-fueled Long March 4B soared into space on southerly trajectory from Taiyuan. Chinese officials declared the mission a success, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., the top state-owned contractor for the country\u2019s space program.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. military tracking data indicated the rocket deployed the two Tianhui 2-02 satellites into a near-circular polar orbit at an average altitude of 317 miles (511 kilometers), with an inclination of 97.45 degrees to the equator.<\/p>\n<p>The satellites will work in tandem, using X-band radar instruments to measure the exact distance from the spacecraft to Earth\u2019s surface. The continuous radar observations will gather data to help Chinese analysts produce regularly-updated three-dimensional maps of the planet.<\/p>\n<p>In a scientific paper, Chinese officials said the Tianhui 2 satellites are similar to the German TerraSAR X and TanDEM X radar observation satellites. The use of two satellites flying in formation yields stereo data critical to generate 3D maps.<\/p>\n<p>From an orbit 300 miles above the planet, the Tianhui 2 satellites can gather imagery with a resolution of about 10 feet (3 meters), Chinese officials said.<\/p>\n<p>China has launched a series of optical Tianhui 1-class optical imaging satellites with a similar 3D mapping mission. The optical satellites are sensitive to spectral differences, allowing users to determine information related to vegetation and agriculture, land use, and natural resources.<\/p>\n<p>The benefit of radar is its ability to map the planet day or night, regardless of weather conditions.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Long March 4B rocket launches a pair of Tianhui 2 mapping satellites. Credit: CASC China launched a Long March 4B rocket Wednesday carrying two Tianhui radar mapping satellites into orbit more than 300 miles in altitude. The two satellites will join a similar pair of spacecraft launched in April 2019, working in tandem to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11509"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}