Tiangong-2 was launched on September 15, 2016 and has been in orbit for more than 820 days. Their application provides around 37 terabytes of earth observation data. This is clear from data released Tuesday at a conference on Tiangong-2 in Beijing.
The data serves 61 institutes in 76 projects, including 15 national authorities, 14 scientific research institutes and 32 universities. The projects cover several areas – resources, the atmosphere, lakes, agriculture and meteorological assistance in the sea, the daily Global Times said.
The Tiangong-2 Space Station is expected to support major national projects and will continue to lead scientific research and economic projects, such as the Belt and Road Initiative, scientific research on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the integration of the Greater Beijing and Tianjin-Hebei metropolitan areas.
Gu Yidong, a manned space project consultant, told the Global Times that the scope of the Chinese Remote Sensing Satellite and its overall capabilities are similar to those of the US.
More than 40 remote sensing satellites to monitor wind, clouds and sea have been built. In the future, China will also build satellite systems for meteorology, seas and land, Gu said.
However, according to Gu, huge amounts of data can not be fully utilized due to the different responsibilities of the authorities. „The next step is tackling the problem of cross-agency data sharing.“
