The Nation Space Organization (NSPO) has completed the inspection of the FORMOSAT-2ground acquisition facility at the Penghu's Wude Airport on Feb 5. The FORMOSAT-2 is Taiwan's first -owned high-resolution remote sensing satellite. After the satellite was launched, the remote sensing instrument on the satellite will be calibrated through the ground calibration facility in Penghu. The ground of the calibration facility is painted with alternating black and white which forms a square with cross lines within the square. Each side of the square is 60 meters long and the square is facing north.

There are two main reasons of selecting Penghu as the location of the FORMOSAT-2's ground calibration facility. First, the satellite passes between Taiwan main island and Penghu Island everyday at 120 degrees east longitude and 24 degrees north latitude. The ground track of FORMOSAT-2 at this point is closer to Penghu Island. Secondly, there is clearer sky and flat terrains in Penghu. Two years ago, the NSPO had contacted the Penghu County government about a ground calibration facility and identified the flat terrain of Wude Airport as the most ideal location for such facility. Wude Airport is an abandoned military airport no longer used for aircraft landings and take-offs. It was designated as a military restricted zone by the Penghu National Defense Command Center. In April of last year, the Ministry of National Defense had granted NSPO the usage rights of Wude Airport. Upon receiving the usage permission, the NSPO had hired contractors for tasks such as land preparation, land measurements, and painting.

The FORMOSAT-2 will be operated at an altitude of 891 kilometers, circling the earth 14 times each day in sun-synchronous orbits. Each day when it passes above Taiwan, it will scan the ground with a linear CCD and take black/white images with resolution of 2 meters and color images with resolution of 8 meters. FORMOSAT-2 and other satellites capable of identifying ground subjects such as QuickBird, IKONOS, EROS-A, and SPOT-5, all passing through Taiwan sky around 10:00 am.

One of the unique features of FORMOSAT-2 is that, during the 8 minute of passing Taiwan, it can take the image of the entire Taiwan island. These images are very useful for the tasks of observing the diurnal variation phenomena for the purposes such as disasters investigation, environment monitoring, farm crops growth, etc. Taking advantage of the satellite's rotation capability, the FORMOSAT-2 can take 3-D images of specific areas, continuous images of the belt areas, or sectional images of extended terrains. The high-resolution images captured by FORMOSAT-2 are not only capable of monitoring changes in the residential areas but also able to identify the cars maneuvering on the ground. Therefore, FORMOSAT-2 can provide significant contribution to people's daily life.