Chinese space authorities have released the first imagery captured by Gaofen-2, the country’s most advanced earth observation satellite so far. Gaofen-2, which was launched on 19 August, can render images with a ground sampling distance of 80 centimetres in panchromatic mode and 3.2 metres in multispectral mode.

Chinese space authorities have downloaded 15 high-resolution photos from the EO satellite. The State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense plans to use the new satellite to help with a variety of tasks, including land use surveillance, mineral resource surveys and disaster relief.

This comes as China announced last week that it plans to build a comprehensive Earth Observation system within the next ten years that integrates use of air-, space-, and ground-based technology, including UAVs, satellites, and GNSS systems.

Gaofen-2 is the second of seven planned earth observation satellites comprising the Gaofen project, which is expected to be operational by 2020.

You can see more images from Gaofen-2 at the official release page.