Gaofen-1
2 m multispectral, Chinese national EO satellite, 800 km wide-field swath
When to use
- Continental and very wide-area monitoring (800 km swath)
- Cost-effective baseline imagery between Sentinel-2 and high-res
- Long-term archive back to 2013
When it's the wrong fit
- Sub-meter resolution needs
- High positional accuracy work
Processing levels
Five processing levels. Levels 1–3 are applied by default on every order; pansharpening (4) runs automatically when the sensor has a panchromatic band; mosaicking (5) runs automatically when the AOI spans multiple scenes. Specify any level explicitly if you need to override the default.
| L | Output | What's applied | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Raw | Digital numbers (sensor counts) with no calibration or geometric correction. Delivered as unprojected GeoTIFF with sensor metadata. | On request |
| 1 | Orthorectified | Geometric correction onto a DEM. Every pixel sits at its true ground position. Customer-supplied GCPs accepted at no extra cost. | Default |
| 2 | Surface reflectance | TOA radiometric correction plus atmospheric correction. Output is the actual fraction of light reflected by the ground, comparable across dates, sensors, and sun angles. | Default |
| 3 | Pansharpened | Gram-Schmidt fusion of panchromatic and multispectral bands. Spectral ratios preserved for downstream analytics. | Default |
| 4 | Mosaicked | Seamless multi-scene composite over the AOI with ML cloud/cirrus masking and custom seam-line path-finding. Applied automatically when the AOI spans more than one scene. | Default* |
*Mosaicking applies when the AOI spans more than one scene. Single-scene orders skip it.
Water masks, tree masks, glint handling, lidar-aligned reflectance, aquatic atmospheric correction, region-tuned models — anything your downstream pipeline requires. Quoted with the order.
Specifications
| General | |
| Provider | CNSA / China RESDC |
| Country | China |
| System type | Satellite |
| Product type | Multispectral |
| Availability | Tasking and catalog |
| Available since | 2013 |
| Sensor | |
| Resolution | Panchromatic: 2 m · Multispectral: 8 m · Wide-field: 16 m |
| Bit depth | 10-bit |
| Swath width | 60 km (PMS) / 800 km (WFV) |
| Off-nadir range | Up to 25° |
| Constellation | 1 satellite (Gaofen-1) |
| Orbit | Sun-synchronous, 645 km |
| Revisit | Every 4 days — in practice 4–8 days |
| Acquisition modes | Mono |
| Reference | |
| CRS | WGS84 |
| Positional accuracy | ~50 m CE90 |
| Processing levels | Custom (full Geopera pipeline applied) |
| Tasking and catalog conditions | |
| Minimum AOI width | tasking 5 km wide · catalog 5 km wide |
| Minimum charge area | tasking 100 km² · archive 25 km² |
| Geographic restrictions | Chinese ground station coverage. |
Live tracking
See all Geopera's satellites →Gaofen-1 positions propagated from fresh TLEs in your browser. Satellites rendered at true orbital altitude, oriented nadir-pointing. The emerald rectangles on the ground are each sensor's current swath footprint.
Spectral bands
| Band | Designation and wavelength |
|---|---|
| Panchromatic | 450-890 nm |
| Blue | 450-520 nm |
| Green | 520-590 nm |
| Red | 630-690 nm |
| NIR | 770-890 nm |
Delivery manifest
Each order delivers as a single archive containing the following files.
gaofen-1_[order_id].zip
├── data/ 5 band files, GeoTIFF, 10-bit
├── metadata.xml acquisition parameters, calibration coefficients
├── metadata.txt human-readable summary
├── masks/ cloud
└── overviews/ JPEG quicklook
Compare with
Closest alternatives by resolution and product type.
| Spec | Gaofen-1 | Gaofen-2 | TripleSat | Jilin-1 GF03D |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 2 m | 80 cm | 80 cm | 75 cm |
| Provider | CNSA / China RESDC | CNSA / China RESDC | 21AT | Chang Guang Satellite Technology (CGST) |
| Country | China | China | China (operated internationally) | China |
| Type | Multispectral | Multispectral | Multispectral | Multispectral |
| Availability | Tasking + catalog | Tasking + catalog | Tasking + catalog | Tasking + catalog |
Spectral indices
105 spectral indices are compatible with Gaofen-1. The most-used: NDVI,EVI,NDWI,SAVI,NDRE,GNDVI,MSAVI. See the full spectral profile for the complete list and band mappings.
Ready to order Gaofen-1?
Browse the catalog, place a tasking order, or request a custom processing pipeline through the Geopera portal. We respond to quote requests within one business day.