According to CCTV Changchun news on October 12 (Reporter Zhang Xuelong), China has for the first time exclusively completed a commercial application of satellite-to-ground laser high-speed image transmission tests.

This is Changguang Satellite's self-developed vehicle-mounted laser communication ground station and the "Jilin-1" constellation MF02A04 satellite-borne laser terminal to carry out a satellite-to-ground laser high-speed image transmission test and achieve success, marking that Changguang Satellite has successfully implemented satellite-to-ground laser The engineering of the full business chain of high-speed image transmission, and the engineering application capabilities have reached the international advanced level.

(Demonstration of satellite-to-ground transmission process (picture provided by Changguang Satellite issued by CCTV))

As the spatial and temporal resolution of the constellation continues to improve, the amount of data generated by the "Jilin-1" constellation, the core project of Changguang Satellite under construction, has increased exponentially.

At the beginning of 2020, Changguang Satellite realized that the bandwidth of satellite-to-ground data transmission links has become a "stuck neck" problem that restricts the transmission of massive data from satellites. Laser communication has become a massive problem due to its high bandwidth, low latency, and good security. One of the best solutions for ultra-high-speed data transfer.

On April 8, 2023, the vehicle-mounted laser communication ground station and the space-borne laser communication terminal completed the ground horizontal docking test with a horizontal distance of 500m, achieving 10Gbps downlink and 10Mbps uplink two-way laser communication. On June 14, 2023, the vehicle-mounted laser communication ground station and the "Jilin-1" MF02A04 satellite-borne laser terminal carried out a satellite-ground two-way acquisition and tracking test, completing the satellite-ground two-way link establishment for the first time. On October 5, 2023, the vehicle-mounted laser communication ground station received the 120GB remote sensing image downloaded from the MF02A04 satellite-borne laser terminal, completing the first satellite-ground two-way high-speed laser image transmission test.

The laser communication ground station independently developed by Changguang Satellite adopts a vehicle-mounted configuration. It not only has the characteristics of high bandwidth and miniaturization, but can also be moved at any time and deployed anywhere. Through the flexible change of the ground station site, it can avoid extreme weather and atmospheric turbulence. Providing effective support, this feature will bring huge improvements to the reliability and stability of satellite-to-ground laser data transmission.

(The images returned by the new technology are clearer (Photo provided by Changguang Satellite issued by CCTV))

It is reported that the communication bandwidth of this satellite-to-ground laser image transmission test reaches 10Gbps, which is more than 10 times the bandwidth of traditional microwave data transmission. In the future, Changguang Satellite plans to expand this bandwidth to 40Gbps-100Gbps and deploy stations in many places across the country, which will greatly improve the efficiency of Jilin-1 remote sensing image data acquisition.