The National Space Organization has announced that the first cluster of satellites involved in the Formosat-7 program will be launched at the end of the year.
The Formosat-7/Cosmic-2 program is a joint Taiwan-US project to use satellites to take soundings of the atmosphere and ionosphere at different points around the world. It is a continuation of the successful Formosat-3 program, which was launched in 2006.
The program calls for a constellation of 12 satellites to be launched in two clusters of six. According to Wednesday’s announcement, both clusters of satellites should be in place in 2018.
Meteorologists expect that the project will greatly improve the accuracy of weather predictions and typhoon tracking.