Thursday's People's Daily says that China Resources Satellite Application Center (shortened as CRSAC), by displaying its special technical superiority, has succeeded in carrying out a set of high-quality work of receiving, recording, processing, filing and putting into production the remote sensing data from the No.1 Resources Satellite.

   This has made China to have in its possession a remote sensing graphic data base covering almost all over China and some peripheral countries and regions. And this has on the one hand put an end to the history in which China had to reply solely on the data sources provided by resources satellites of foreign countries and on the other has been extensively used in the national economic construction with the system's comprehensive technical index stepped into the world advanced level.

   Launched into the space Oct.14, 1999 China's No.1 Resources Satellite was formally handed over to the center for use on March 2, 2000. It is China's first long-life resources satellite. In a span of over a year the technicians of the CRSAC have through study and research developed a special set of processing method. And by dint of it they have overcome and made good some shortcomings of the satellite data, changed its programs and amended its data and finally succeeded in solving some thorny technical problems never encountered in the same type of resources satellites of foreign countries in the past. So far the center has processed and filed some 230,000 scapes of remote sensing data, produced some 7000 scapes of super-digital quality. The achievement obtained in so short a time is something never seen in the application history of the international satellites.

   The use of the remote sensing graphic scapes showing the pollution of the Yellow River outlet and the disastrous landslides in Bomi County of Tibet provided by the CRSAC has offered departments of state environment, and of resistance and relief to calamities the bases for making scientific decisions. The Chinese Geological Survey Administration has used the satellite data for a scrutiny of fundamental geology in Tibet, in the study of formation of mineral veins in Xinjiang, Gansu and Qinghai, having all achieved twice results with half the effort.

   In accordance with the needs for the development of national economy the CRSAC has turned out high-quality products from the piles of remote sensing data in order to meet the needs of users. Up to now, the center has gathered in a formal subscription of 13, 000 scenes of satellite data, of which 4000 have already been handed over to the users for use. More than 10 such subjects as the remote study of the changing environment in the eastern part of Liaoning Province, survey on the geological environment in mining areas of Hebei, appraisal of traffic and transportation conditions in 16 cities of Henan and that of three big cities of Hubei, remote sensing survey of land resources in Jiangsu province and surveying and planning of the coastal regions and oceanographical study in Guangxi have up to now been put into use and created huge economic benefits.