A commercial Chinese satellite company has announced it will accelerate its image update service starting Monday.

This marks the first time the company has achieved bi-monthly updates for national 0.5-meter resolution satellite images, according to Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co., Ltd.

The company will release images from the previous bimonthly period on the 10th day of each odd month, available for online invocation and browsing via its Jilin-1 satellite remote sensing mall (www.jl1mall.com/store) and the Jilin-1 web app.

The effective coverage rate of the first bimonthly images, captured between January and February 2025, exceeded 99.4 percent.

Previously, satellite images were updated only once a year. However, starting in 2023, Chang Guang began updating its images quarterly.

In the international context, the update frequency of satellite images was higher in key regions, while images of remote or uninhabited areas were often updated only once every one to two years, according to Chang Guang.

The progress in update frequency can be attributed to the Jilin-1 ultra-wide, high-resolution optical remote sensing satellites developed by Chang Guang. According to the company, these satellites are also the lightest super-wide submeter optical remote sensing satellites in the world.

In response to the production of massive remote sensing data, Chang Guang has made breakthroughs in wide-area multi-parameter automated data screening and planning, ensuring the efficient acquisition and production of high-quality data in a short timeframe, said Yu Shuhai, a director in charge of satellite data at Chang Guang.

The company has also developed an automated quality inspection system, which has effectively improved data quality.

The Jilin-1 constellation, which launched its first group of satellites in October 2015, now comprises more than 117 satellites and is capable of observing any point on the globe approximately 40 times a day.

It can cover the world six times a year and the entire China 24 times annually, enabling it to provide frequent updates of satellite images of any location.

The data generated by the satellites have been widely applied in agriculture and forestry production, environmental monitoring and smart cities, said Ma Hong, a marketing manager at Chang Guang.