China's ZY-1-02C satellite has 2.36 meter resolution
As military enthusiasts, what we really want to know is the resolution of China's spy satellites. Since that information is classified, we have to look at China's civilian imaging satellites to determine the baseline for estimating China's military satellite capability.
It's common sense that spy satellites have superior capability in comparison to civilian satellites. By analogy, military GPS has vastly superior accuracy in comparison to civilian GPS.
Anyway, you should click on the newslink and watch the short video on China's ZY-1-02C satellite. For your convenience, I have screen-captured some of the images from China's satellite.
NEWSCONTENT
China's civilian ZY-1-02C satellite has 2.36 meter resolution. The ZY-1-03C satellite has 2.1 meter resolution. China will launch three more satellites with 1 meter resolution.
I think this is a picture of the Beijing International Airport. Clearly, China's ZY-1-02C satellite can easily distinguish between different types of aircraft.
The ZY-1-02C satellite resolution is sufficient to allow an observer to read the Chinese characters on a warehouse. The first character means "large." I don't remember the other characters anymore.
I think this is a picture from space of the Forbidden City in Beijing. Each building can be clearly seen. For military use, a Chinese spy satellite will be able to provide real-time surveillance for an airstrike.
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High resolution imagery released from China's ZY-1-02C, ZY-1-03C satellites
Beijing, China - Feb 29, 2012
The latest high-resolution images delivered by China's high-resolution remote sensing satellites ZY-1-02C and ZY-1-03C were released by China's Center for Resources Satellite Data and Application Wednesday.
The ZY-1-02C, launched on Dec 22 of last year, has become the first customized land resources satellite for Chinese clients, the center said.
Yu Wenyong, head of the China's Center for Resources Satellite Data and Application, said, “Engines of large aircraft at Beijing's Capital International Airport can be clearly seen from the images delivered from remote sensing satellite ZY-1-02C, as well as vehicles and trees on the road, and the texture of the Bird's Nest and Water Cube, and even steel beams of the Bird's Nest are clearly seen.”
“The highest resolution of remote sensing satellite ZY-1-02C is 2.36 meters,” he added.
With two high-resolution color cameras and one multi-spectral camera, the ZY-1-02C will provide clients with images for disaster relief services, agriculture development, environmental monitoring and other applications.
China's first high-resolution remote sensing satellite ZY-1-02C has carried out orbital tests, and images delivered from it reach international standards, China's Center for Resources Satellite Data and Application said Wednesday.
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As for the ZY-1-03C, the highest resolution is 2.1 meters. The resolution of our current satellites has reached the level of the same kind in France, Japan and India,” said Yu Wenyong.
According to Yu, the test of ZY-1-02C and ZY-1-03C has entered the final stage, and they are about to be used.
China will launch three more land resources satellites, and the pixelation will reach 1 meter, which will offer important technical support to China’s land resources and stereo mapping figures."
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Showdown between Chinese and American commercial satellite resolutions!
1. Chinese ZY-1-02C resolution is
2.36 meters.
2. Chinese ZY-1-03C resolution is
2.1 meters.
3. Upcoming three Chinese satellite resolution is
1 meter.
4. American GeoEye-1 (built by General Dynamics and launched in 2008) has a resolution of 16 inches (41 centimeters or
0.41 meter).
5. American GeoEye-2 is scheduled for launch in 2013. Its resolution is 25 cm (or
0.25 meter)
In conclusion, the best Chinese satellite currently has a 2.1 meter resolution. In contrast, the best American civilian satellite currently has a 0.41 meter resolution. America's GeoEye-1 has 5 times better resolution than China's ZY-1-03C (e.g. 0.41m x 5 = 2.1 meters).
In the near future, China will launch three satellites with 1 meter resolution. In contrast, America's GeoEye-2 will launch next year with 0.25m resolution. The American GeoEye-2 will have 4 times better resolution than China's best satellites (e.g. 0.25m x 4 = 1 meter).
The trend is that China is closing the gap. American imaging satellites are currently 5 times better than Chinese satellites. However, the American lead will shrink down to 4 times better in the near future.
World’s Highest-Res, Color Satellite Image Showcases New Spacecraft’s Quality – News Watch
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World’s Highest-Res, Color Satellite Image Showcases New Spacecraft’s Quality
Posted by David Braun of National Geographic on October 9, 2008
Image courtesy GeoEye, Inc
Commercial satellite imagery of the Earth will be a lot sharper thanks to GeoEye-1, a spacecraft that can make images of objects on the ground as small as 16 inches (41 centimeters) — from more than 400 miles (640 kilometers) away.
The satellite has been undergoing calibration and check-out since it was launched last month. This week, while moving north to south in a 423-mile-high (681-kilometer) orbit over the eastern seaboard of the U.S. at a speed of 17,000 miles per hour (27,000 kilometers per hour), GeoEye started working.
The image (above) “captures what is in fact the very first location the satellite saw when we opened the camera door and started imaging,” said Brad Peterson, GeoEye’s vice president of operations. “We expect the quality of the imagery to be even better as we continue the calibration activity.”
The image shows Kutztown University, Pennsylvania. It was produced by fusing the satellite’s panchromatic (black-and-white) and multispectral (color) data to produce a high-quality, true-color 20-inch (50-centimeter) resolution image.
The satellite’s highest resolution imagery (16-inch) will not be available commercially. Those images are reserved for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which paid a major share of the cost of the satellite.
Google is the second largest shareholder in the venture, so it gets exclusive online mapping use of the 20-inch-resolution imagery, which it plans to use to improve the quality of Google Maps and Google Earth.
Images for other commercial purposes (at the lower 20-inch res, naturally) can be purchased directly from GeoEye, Inc.
A second satellite, GeoEye-2, slated to launch in 2011 or 2012, will have a resolution of 10 inches (25 centimeters), Wired reports on its Web site. However, Wired continues,
Google’s satellite imagery will not likely get more detailed because of the U.S.-government regulation that restricts commercial imagery to a resolution no higher than 50 centimeters.
The very finest detail of imagery available from space is reserved for the spy agencies."
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GeoEye-2 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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GeoEye-2 is a planned third generation commercial Earth observation satellite, due to launch in early 2013. The satellite will have a resolution of 25 cm, making it the highest resolution commercial Earth observation satellite in orbit, once it has been launched. However, restrictive licensing by the US government makes it likely that only the US government and some of its allies will have access to imagery at the full design resolution -
all other users will have to make do with imagery at the highest resolution that the US government licenses for other users - 20 inches (50.8 cm). The imaging sensor will be manufactured by ITT Exelis, and the satellite owned by GeoEye.
When it goes up, GeoEye-2 will join two other satellites, GeoEye-1 and IKONOS, which are already in orbit. Assuming that both these satellite continue to operate, this will give GeoEye three sub-metre satellites in orbit, and the ability to offer its customers daily revisits. This will potentially open up a whole new raft of applications for the company. RapidEye already provides this capability on a commercial basis, but its satellites only offer 5 metre resolution.
Primary mirror diameter: 1.1 m[1]
Lockheed Martin, the builder of IKONOS, has been selected as the builder of the satellite platform over General Dynamics the builder of GeoEye-1. General Dynamics lost money on the fixed contract for GeoEye-1 and could not come to terms with GeoEye.[2]"
[Note: I should mention that resolution and picture quality are two different standards. A picture is two dimensional and it has both length and width. We know that a GeoEye-1 pixel is 1/5th the length of a ZY-1-03C pixel. However, a GeoEye-1 picture will be 25 times sharper than a ZY-1-03C picture.
This is easy to understand. For the same picture size, we can fit 5 times more GeoEye-1 pixels horizontally. Also, we can fit 5 times more GeoEye-1 pixels vertically in comparison to a ZY-1-03C picture. Hence, a GeoEye-1 picture will have 25 times more pixels/detail than a ZY-1-03C picture.]