China's first seismo-electromagnetic satellite, Zhangheng-1, has completed half of its in-orbit tests, and the results have generally met with expectations, reports Xinhua News Agency.

 

新华社报道，中国首颗地震电磁监测试验卫星张衡一号在轨测试工作已过半，初步结果符合预期。

 

The news was announced during the International Conference for the Decade Memory of the Wenchuan Earthquake and the Fourth International Conference on Continental¹ Earthquakes, which is being held in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

 

Zhangheng 1 was launched into a sun-synchronous orbit from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert in February. The satellite was designed to study seismic² precursors³, which might help with the establishment of a future ground-space earthquake monitoring and forecasting network.

 

Zhangheng-1 has generated 8.22 terabytes of data since it went into orbit. The data indicates that the satellite has been able to identify the distribution of the Earth's geomagnetic field and ionosphere, according to Hu Chunfeng, head of the Science and Technology Department of the China Earthquake Administration.

 

Hu said that the China Earthquake Administration will work closely with the China National Space Administration to conduct further tests of the satellite and to study the data that it generates.

 

In addition to the collection of data related to earthquakes, Zhangheng-1 will collect data for weather forecasts, aerospace⁴ and navigation communications, and space physics and geophysics research.

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