The nameplate unveiling ceremony for the CAS Center for Earth Observations and Digital Earth (CEODE) was held on 21 November in Beijing. The event brought together more than 500 high-caliber officials and prestigious scholars from government departments, research institutes, universities and international organizations, including CAS Vice President JIANG Mianheng, Vice Minister of Science and Technology CAO Jianlin, China National Space Administration SUN Laiyan and former Minister of Science and Technology XU Guanhua.
By sticking to the philosophy of a mall center with a large network, CEODE will be made up of four components: a Satellite Remote Sensing Center, an Airborne Remote Sensing Center, a Spatial Data Center, and the Laboratory of Digital Earth Sciences, according to Prof. GUO Huadong, director of the new center.
"Our goal is to build an internationally-renowned research center on earth observation and digital earth technologies and to meet key needs of China's development," Guo said.
The CEODE is responsible for offering a national service for the acquisition, processing, archiving and distribution of airborne and spaceborne remote sensing data. In partnership with other institutions, it also engages in research on the scientific and technical development of geospatial information and Digital Earth.
As a scientific institution on earth observation, CEODE plays a significant role in the development and verification of airborne and spaceborne sensors by working closely with industrial partners, and supplies application services with its integrated Remote Sensing data and relevant Earth Sciences data in a variety of fields. Based on the Digital Earth Science Platform featured with powerful virtual visualization and computation tools, the center is to provide social services to a broad variety of publics.
The center will include a receiving station for earth-observation data, which, upon completion, will be able to receive 70 percent of the satellite data of the Asian continent. The global information collected and generated by CEODE is to help better understand the natural and man-made impact on our planet earth.
