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Cost-effective daily monitoring with FORMOSAT-2

Thanks to its unique orbit, FORMOSAT-2 is the only civil high-resolution optical satellite that can cover any scene in its coverage area every day. Each site within this area is imaged under the same viewing conditions, i.e. from the same angle and under the same lighting conditions. This makes FORMOSAT-2 the ideal sensor for monitoring and change detection applications, e.g. environmental monitoring for oil spills, oil production facility monitoring).

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The unique acquisition capabilities also ensure an improved acquisition success for optical data in equatorial areas or other cloud-prone areas.

With the MyFORMOSAT-2 Virtual Reception system Astrium offers priority access to FORMOSAT-2 data by a guaranteed allocation of acquisition capacity to users on defined orbits. Customers benefit from customised and flexible programming services using an accessible desktop system. A simple web interface provides full visibility of the programming, acquisition and production and enables the modification of tasking requests in order to develop the imaging scenario best suited for the respective requirements. In July 2012 Astrium GEO-Information Services conducted a demonstration project for a customer in the Latin American region to demonstrate the capabilities of FORMOSAT-2 and the advantages of MyFORMOSAT-2. In the demo project images of an area of more than 40,000 km² were programmed to be acquired every day during the equivalent of a 1-orbit minute. The images were recorded in Panchromatic and Multispectral modes. In spite of the winter season in the region, which is characterised by frequent cloud cover, more than 80% of the images resulted to have less than 20% clouds. Within only 10 days more than 70% of the area was successfully covered – thanks to the daily revisit of the sensor and the flexibility offered by the MyFORMOSAT-2 platform FORMOSAT-2 Satellite Image – Mauritius Island © NSPO 2008/ 2009

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