The TanSat mission is one of the Earth Observation projects managed by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. The principal goal of this project is to detect and monitor carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere.
The primary research goal of the TanSat mission is to monitor the variation of CO2 on a seasonal scale, but the mission is also improving knowledge of the distribution of CO2 on a global scale, understanding how it contributes to climate change
Satellite characteristics
Launch Date - End 1466546400 -
Status Operational
Orbit type sun-synchronous
Altitude 700 km
Orbit inclination 98.2°
Orbit period 90 minutes
The satellite hosts two instruments:
- ACGS (Atmospheric Carbon-dioxide Grating Spectrometer), dedicated to measurements of the near-infrared absorption by CO2
- CAPI (Cloud Aerosol Polarization Imager), devoted to studying cloud and aerosols in high-resolution. Data from the instrument can be used to compensate for errors in the measurement of CO2.