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Detailed description of experiments onboard Shenzhou IV
Beijing - Feb 21, 2003 In early morning on 30 december 2002, Shenzhou IV spaceship was successfully launched into orbit from Jiuquan Satellite Launching Center. Shenzhou IV conducted eight kinds of applied science and technological research in orbit.
These included: In support of these overall science goals Shenzhou IV carried a 52-piece payload to space in the current experiment. Comprising 19 pieces of equipment and common things such as an atmospheric detector and microgravity surveying instrument that took part in earlier experiments. And additional 33 pieces of scientific research equipment including a multiple model microwave remote sensor for ground observation, a spatial cell electrofusion instrument and high energy particle detector were used in space for the first time.
Space Observation Station It is mainly used for observing the ocean in addition to remotely sensing the ground. Compared with visible light and infrared remote sensing, the microwave remote sensor has its special outstanding features as it will not be restricted by cloud and thunderstorm and can operate under all kinds of weather conditions at all time. Besides, it has certain penetrating power toward soil and vegetative cover. The system includes three kinds of microwave remote sensors, namely microwave radiometer, radar altimeter and radar diffuser. This golden "combination" will give full play to their functions in space. The radar radiometer is used mainly for surveying rainfall, atmospheric contents, snow cover, soil contents and temperature of sea level. It can also gain information of conditions of vegetation and crops. The radar altimeter can obtain effective altitude of waves and reference data of ocean circulation and ocean dynamics. This kind of survey method is still so far the only means to continuously survey the surface of sea water and ice under all weather conditions in real time with high accuracy. It is quite significant to the study of natural disasters. The radar diffuser adopts the internationally advanced conical scanning method. This method was only used in the satellite survey. It can survey wind speed and direction on sea surface and obtain information on the surface wind field. It can also be used in ocean dynamics research, sea condition forecast and disaster monitoring. The three kinds of microwave remote sensor form a combined observation method and can obtain more complete and abundant information. This kind of multimode combination is the first venture of our country. It reduces size of payload and power consumption. It can obtain different remote sensing observation data from a same observation zone. Through merged processing of those data, it will be able to obtain more observation information. Meanwhile, conducting technical experiments using three kinds of microwave remote sensor in one system has created conditions for the further development of business-type microwave remote sensor in our country.
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