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| China Donates System to Share Satellite Data |
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China is set to provide high-quality satellite data, products, services and applications in the Asia-Pacific region to benefit other countries and to strengthen regional cooperation in the field. "We hope that more Asia-Pacific countries can benefit from the digital video broadcasting-satellite through China's Fengyun series of meteorological satellites for their meteorological research, disaster mitigation, economic growth and prosperity," said Qin Dahe, head of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA). CMA and China National Space Administration (CNSA) presented reception stations for the system to seven Asia-Pacific countries at a donation ceremony in Beijing on Friday, to further promote regional multilateral cooperation in space technology and applications. The system can receive real-time data from China's meteorological satellites, along with satellites owned by other countries worldwide, and broadcast them to countries in the Asia-Pacific region. China has used the system since last year for monitoring climate change, weather forecasting, disaster and environmental monitoring as well as services for many other fields including agriculture, forestry and civil aviation, said Zhang Wenjian, a CMA official. He said that China has established more than 100 users of the system across its territory and said he hopes that more countries in the region will take the opportunity to share the information it collects and processes for their benefit. Beijing-based ambassadors from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru and Thailand expressed appreciation for China's efforts in promoting space cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. China and the seven countries signed a convention on space cooperation last October as the precursor to establishing the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) in Beijing, an inter-governmental organization to facilitate international alliances for the peaceful use of space. "By sharing the satellite data from the system, more information can be used for the region's peace and prosperity and people are linked together for a better future," said Ashfaqur Rahman, Bangladesh Ambassador to China. Indonesian Ambassador Sudrajat said the Chinese satellite system is "an active step towards space cooperation under the APSCO." Luo Ge, deputy administrator of CNSA, pledged to run training courses for staff from the APSCO member states to help them use the system and to realize the cooperation proposed by the convention. China has launched seven weather satellites since 1988, including four in polar orbits and three in earth synchronous orbits. Two are still operating. The satellites have been listed on the global meteorological watch system by the World Meteorological Organization as a key part of its Global Earth Observation system. Four other weather satellites are scheduled for launch before 2013, with the first to be put into orbit this year. Part of the Fengyun-2 (FY-2) series of weather satellites, they will serve not only as an observation system over the skies of China to monitor possible weather changes that may affect the country, but will also contribute to regional space cooperation. (China Daily March 25, 2006)
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