China receives data from land observation satellite

China has received the first batch of data from its newly launched land observation satellite, scientists in charge of the spacecraft said Tuesday.

The satellite L-SAR 01B was sent into orbit atop a Long March-4C rocket on Feb. 27.

China's L-SAR 01 is a satellite group composed of two satellites equipped with L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), namely the L-SAR 01A and the L-SAR 01B. The former was sent into space on Jan. 26.

The ground station located in Beijing's Miyun District has tracked and received the downlink data with a total size of 16.55 gigabytes from the L-SAR 01B, said the Aerospace Information Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences that is responsible for the radar design and data reception of the satellite group.

"SAR" refers to a microwave-imaging radar system that emits electromagnetic waves to Earth and receives echoes. It can take high-definition microwave pictures of the land surface.

The two satellites will be tasked with providing data to support land resource, mapping, forestry, and disaster prevention and relief uses.