AIR Releases Airborne Remote Sensing Data Resource Node
Oct 31, 2023
The Airborne Remote Sensing Data Resource Node, a node of the National Earth Observation Data Center, was recently launched to provide flight data services for government departments and research institutions, according to the Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
The Airborne Remote Sensing Center under AIR serves as the operational hub for acquiring, processing, and analyzing airborne remote sensing data, while its resource node functions as the repository and archival hub for storing, managing, and distributing the collected remote sensing data.
Currently, the Airborne Remote Sensing Center operates two Citation aircraft and two MA60 aircraft, which form the backbone of two national major S&T infrastructures: the "Remote Sensing Aircraft" and the "Aeronautic Remote Sensing System."
The center possesses over 10 sets of remote sensing payload systems, which enable the simultaneous deployment of multiple aircraft with various sensors in the same area. This capability allows for conducting optical, microwave, and other types of geospatial observation experimental tasks.
The center has established a PB-level data center (node) equipped with high-performance parallel systems including pixel factories, aviation data processing management and numerous high-performance computing and storage hardware facilities. They have long been engaged in producing standard data products, basic data products, and application data products for high spatial, hyperspectral, synthetic aperture radar, LiDAR, and infrared payloads, providing data services.
Since its establishment in 1985, the Airborne Remote Sensing Center has accumulated original data covering an area of over 2 million square kilometers, amounting to over 800TB of data. Over 700TB of product data has been distributed to more than 20 industry research users in various fields such as agriculture, ecology, natural resources, land surveying and emergency response.
Pan Jie, the head of the Airborne Remote Sensing Center, stated that the data resource node was established based on national major S&T infrastructures, with the goal of establishing a collaborative network for openly sharing high-resolution multi-modal data. The primary aim is to provide top-tier data resources for scientific research.
Access to the airborne data collected by the center can be obtained through the data sharing network of the National Earth Observation Data Center.
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