GF-1 includes 4 identical satellites, the first one was launched in April 2013, and the other 3 were launched in March 2018. It mainly applies in land resource investigation, mineral resource management, atmospheric and water environment quality monitoring, and natural disaster emergency response and monitoring, GF is the Chinese abbreviation for GAO FEN – meaning ‘high-resolution’.

GF-2 is a follow-on mission of the GF-1 tecąology demonstration mission, a series of a high-resolution optical Earth observation satellites of CNSA (China National Space Administration), Beijing, China. GF-2 is a part of the CHEOS (China High Resolution Observation System) family with the objective to provide high accuracy geographical mapping, land and resource surveying, environment change monitoring, near real-time observation for disaster prevention and mitigation, as well as for agriculture and forest estimation.

The satellite is equipped with a multi-polarized C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) at a meter-level resolution. Its imaging modes include spot mode, strip-map mode and scan mode. GF-3 is the first Chinese high-resolution SAR satellite to acquire multi-polarized SAR image with resolution of 1-500 meters and cover a total swath to 10-650 kilometers. The maximum working duration is 50 minutes.

GF-4 satellite is the first Chinese geosynchronous orbit remote sensing satellite and equipped with one stare camera with resolution of 50-m VNIR (Visible Light Near Infrared) and 400-m MWIR (Medium Wave Infrared) spectrum and 400-km swath. It is based on area array starring imaging and boasts capability of visible light, multi-spectrum and infrared imaging. It observes China and the surrounding areas by pointing control. GF-4 provides fast, reliable and stable optical remote sensing data to support disaster response, forestry, each quake and meteorology applications, and supplements an advanced tecąology for alerting natural disasters, monitoring wild fires or typhoon. GF-4 satellite data is mainly applied in the industries as environment, marine, agriculture and water resources in China and neighbor countries.

Ziyuan (ZY) satellites currently consist of 2 satellites, ZY-3 and ZY-3 02. Both are high-resolution stereoscopic Earth mapping satellites working as a team. The satellite carries three high-resolution panchromatic cameras and 1 infrared multispectral scanner (IRMSS). The panchromatic cameras are positioned at the front-viewing, vertical-viewing and rear-viewing positions, and they collect imagery of the Earth from different perspectives at the same time, allowing precise determination of the exact locations of different areas of interest on the Earth, resulting in ideal production of large-scale maps. At the same time, the payloads can also provide high-resolution infrared and stereoscopic images to satisfy the demands of the users from resource mapping, environmental surveying, disaster monitoring, city planning and national security segments.