China establish earth-observation center to develop geomatics technologies

The Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth is an independent non-profit research institute affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is responsible for the provision of national service for the acquisition, processing, archiving and distribution of airborne and spaceborne remote sensing data. In partnership with other institutions, CEODE also engages in research on the scientific and technical development of geospatial information and Digital Earth. As a scientific institution on earth 
 
observation, CEODE plays a significant role in the development and verification of airborne and spaceborne sensors by working closely with industrial partners, also supplies application services with its integrated Remote Sensing data and relevant Earth Sciences data in a variety of fields. Based on the Digital Earth Science Platform featured with powerful virtual visualization and computation tools, CEODE provides social services to a broad variety of publics. In addition, global information collected and generated by CEODE is to help human beings better understanding of the natural and man-made impact on our planet earth.
 
Organizational Structure of CEODE:

 
Missions:
 
Satellite Remote Sensing Center
The Satellite Remote Sensing Center (i.e. China Remote Sensing Satellite Ground Station, established in 1986) receives, processes and disseminates international remote sensing satellite data. It has three ground receiving stations: Miyun ground station, Kashi ground station and Sanya ground station. The Center is one of the largest international ground stations by receiving data from 16 satellites worldwide, including Landsat, SPOT, Radarsat-1, ERS-1/2, ENVISAT, IRS-P6, MODIS, CBERS and so on. At present, it keeps about 1.4 million remote sensing scenes and 150 TB in total, and increases the amount in the rate of 15 TB per year.
 
Airborne Remote Sensing Center
The Airborne Remote Sensing Center operates several unique aircraft and maintains a variety of airborne sensor systems dedicated to the support of remote sensing research. The CEODE aircrafts are used as test-beds for developing advanced sensor concepts and specification designs, satellite simulation,
 
 and  algorithms validation, as well as for the support  of scientific and operational data collection. Numerous sensor systems are in use, and most of them were developed by Chinese Academy  of Sciences, including multi-spectral imaging devices, imaging spectrometer, SAR system, and a suite of large-format mapping cameras.  Data are collected for the atmospheric, terrestrial and oceanic processing aspects of the Earth Science programs.
 
 
Spatial Data Center
Spatial Data Center (SDC) is responsible for airborne and spaceborne earth observation data archive, processing and dissemination. SDC has a huge data storage and high efficiency circulation environment, and also has a client interface for data acquisition, archiving, and/or processing services. It provides feedback to the clients at every stage of the process to keep them informed of the status of their requests. SDC also aims to the data assimilation that involves the combination of the earth observational data with other earth measurement data. The data sharing is also an important mission of this center for the government-supported researchers or agencies.
 
Laboratory of Digital Earth Sciences
The Laboratory of Digital Earth Sciences (LDES) is constituted principally for the research on the digital earth technologies and remote sensing applications. A high-performance Digital Earth Platform is established in LDES, which provides a powerful computational tools and a wonderful visualization environment to both scientists and publics. The LDES conducts high level application researches related to land-use survey, atmospheric detection, ocean surveillance, mineral exploration, archeological finding, environmental and ecological investigation, global change, etc. This data helps the decision-makers make informed policy availed to the social and economic sustainable development.
 
International Society for Digital Earth
The International Society for Digital Earth (ISDE) is a nongovernmental international academic organization initiated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) with the collaboration of institutes and related scholars throughout the world. ISDE promotes academic exchange and cooperation under the concept of a Digital Earth, playing a constructive role in the sustainable development of the national economies and social progress, disaster mitigation, protection of the world's cultural heritage, environment and natural resources, anti-terrorism and maintenance of the political stability and social progress worldwide. The ISDE Secretariat and the Editorial Office of its official publication � International Journal of Digital Earth (IJDE) are set in CEODE.