Zhongfa Haiying Weixing (CFOSAT)

Launch data: Designation  43662 / 18083A Launch date  29 Oct 2018 - 00:43 UT Launch site  Jiuquan, SLS-2 Launch vehicle  CZ-2C Mission  Rem. Sensing, Oceanography Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee  510 x 523 km Eccentricity   Inclination  97.5° Period  95.0 min

CFOSat in action

Spacecraft data: Prime manufacturer  China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the Centre National d′Études Spatiales (CNES) Platform  Cast 2000 bus Operator  CALT/Beijing Mass at launch  600 kg Dry Mass   kg Basic shape  1.4m x 1.4m x 1.2m Dimension (m)   Equipment  SCAT wind scatterometer and the CNES (France) SWIM radar altimeter Solar array   Stabilization   Propulsion   DC power   Design lifetime  3 yrs

Description:

• CFOSAT carries two radar instruments. The SWIM (Surface Waves Investigation and Monitoring), is a wave scatterometer supplied by CNES and the SCAT (wind SCAT terometer), a wind-field scatterometer supplied by CNSA.
• SWIM′s 6 rotating beams will enable it to measure wave properties (direction, wavelength, etc.), while SCAT will measure wind intensity and direction. The data will be downlinked to French and Chinese receiving stations.
• These data will allow scientists to achieve more accurate ocean forecasts and give earlier warning of severe weather events like storms and cyclones. CFOSAT will also help climatologists to learn more about exchanges between the oceans and atmosphere, which play a key role in climate.
• Conceived by the LATMOS atmospheres, environments and space observations laboratory in Paris and Guyancourt, the SWIM instrument was developed by Thales Alenia Space with oversight and funding from CNES. Other mission partners include the French Institute of marine research and exploration IFREMER, the French national weather service Meteo-France, and SHOM, the French naval hydrographic and oceanographic office.
• Both instruments are Ku-band radars (13.2 to 13.6 GHz) scanning around the vertical axis. SWIM is a 6-beam radar at small incidence (0 to 10°), SCAT is a rotating fan-beam radar with larger incidence angles (18~50°). This combination of incidence angles is necessary to measure the wind vector (from large incidence) and wave properties (from small incidence).
• The interest for the combination of the two payloads is evident since surface wind is the energy source which creates the surface waves; the space and time evolution of these surface waves is dependent on both local and remote wind conditions. The combination of the two instruments will help to separate the different effects governing the evolution of the wave field.
• CFOSAT is a pre-operational mission of joint measurements of winds and waves which aims is to supply wind/wave observations in near-real time to the meteorological agencies to improve their forecast and sea state models. These measurements will also be supplied to the scientific community for the oceanographic and climate research to improve sea models as well as our understanding of the influence of the sea state on surface fluxes.
• Operating at an altitude of 519 km, CFOSAT′s data availability will be in near-real time (less than three hours after acquisition) for the meteorological agencies. Data distribution will be made on request through a server and an authentication for the scientists, and systematically through meteorological servers for the meteorological agencies. The satellite will have a global coverage at a 13-day scale for SWIM and at a 3-day scale for SCAT.

Mission details:

• On Oct 29, 2018 CALT/Beijing launched CZ-2C flight Y22 from Jiuquan carrying the China-France Oceanography Satellite. The satellite carries Chinese SCAT wind scatterometer and the CNES (France) SWIM radar altimeter instrument. Data processing and much of the instrument operations are under the aegis of CNES, but the satellite itself is controlled by China wich its Chinese name, Zhongfa Haiying Weixing. The 700 kg satellite is a CAST-2000 bus built at the DFH factory.
• The CZ-2C also deployed a series of cubesats. Four of them were built by the Tiangyi Research Institute (whose marketing brand is SpaceTy):
  • TY1-02 is Xiaoxiang yi hao 02 xing (XX-1 S/N 02). It carries a laser communications payload for Hangxing Guangwang Kongjian Jishu YG (LaserFleet) of Shenzhen. It is probably a 6U cubesat.
  • TY1-03 is Xinghe ('Galaxy'), also called Tianfu Guoxing 1. The payload is a remote sensing satellite for Guoxing Yuhang Keji YG (ADA Space) of Tianfu New Area in Chengdu. It is probably a 6U cubesat.
  • TY4-01 is Changsha Gaoxing , named after the Changsha High Tech Zone city. It is a 50 kg test satellite for Tianyi/SpaceTy′s new ′0805′ bus; it reportedly carries an amateur radio payload.
  • TY4-02 is Zhaojin-1, also called Tongchuan-1. It is a 6U cubesat for Tsinghua University with a gamma ray astronomy detector. It will also be used by Tongchuan City to test its commercial ground station (Zhaojin is a suburb of Tongchuan).
• In addition to the Tianyi satellites:
  • Tianqi 1 is the first satellite in the 38-craft Tianqi constellation by Beijing Guodian HiTech Technology Co. Ltd. (Beijing Guodian Gaokeji YG). It will relay data from IoT devices. Its size is unknown.
  • CubeBel-1 is a 2U cubesat from Belarus National University with a digipeater amateur radio payload and student experiments.
  • A final cubesat reported to have been deployed on this mission is a mystery. Some reports suggested it was Hongyan-1, a China Academy of Space Technology LEO communications platform, but this has not been confirmed.

External links:

• Nasa spaceflight: Satellite Information
• Satellite tracking (n2ya.com): Real time satellite tracking
• Launch photo-#6n