Recently, China's Changguang Satellite Corporation released a set of eye-catching commercial high-resolution satellites**, including Japan's famous Mount Fuji. This commercial campaign has attracted a lot of attention, not because of its beautiful images, but because of its unusual shooting angles.
In general, low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite photography** tends to have a vertical top-down view, which is relatively small, if not fully vertical.
However, this time, the ** of Jilin No. 1 captured the entire side of Mt. Fuji at a near-horizontal angle, as if it were a drone shot. In addition, the accuracy of the images is amazing, and you can clearly see the path down Mt. Fuji, which is a technical achievement that is not easy to achieve.
The Jilin-1 series of high-resolution satellites has the ability to swing 45° to the side, which enables large-angle side imaging without changing the orbit of the satellite. Mt. Fuji** is achieved through this side-swing working mechanism.
However, when shooting from a wide angle from the side, it is often difficult to get a clear picture due to differences in accuracy and pull distortion due to differences in viewing angles, especially details such as the trail down Mt. Fuji.
Changguang successfully realized this technical problem by taking multiple shots in orbit from a single satellite, stacking, computational synthesis, and combining Mt. Fuji's data model and artificial intelligence assistance.
This technology has attracted the attention of the United States because, unlike the general low-orbit satellites that use vertical angles, the large angle of Jilin-1 makes it more difficult to operate**. Traditional anti-satellite reconnaissance methods are ineffective for such side shots, increasing concealment. The United States has always used smoke and jamming devices to prevent satellite shooting, but this is no longer effective for side shots.
Of course, this does not mean that this technique will be quickly applied in the military sphere. Although there has been a significant breakthrough in the working mechanism of Jilin-1, there is still a time lag due to the limitation of processing technology and satellite backhaul bandwidth.
In addition, it needs the support of the terrain database model, so it is mainly used for the monitoring of fixed targets and buildings, and still has no practical significance for mobile targets with strong mobility.
However, with the continuous advancement of artificial intelligence technology, large-angle side shooting technology may be used in modern warfare in the future, and China is clearly at the forefront of the world in this field.
As China's satellite technology continues to develop, the possibility that the United States may become the first country in the world to resume anti-satellite experiments has raised concerns.