China News Service, Kunming, September 22 (Reporter Miao Chao) The Yunnan Provincial Government Information Office held a press conference in Kunming on the 22nd. At the meeting, the Yunnan Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Exploration and Development announced the official release of the "Caiyun Constellation" project, which will make up for the shortcomings in Yunnan's local commercial remote sensing data acquisition capabilities.
Yunnan is a key area rich in geological and mineral resources, prone to geological disasters, and has heavy natural resource supervision tasks. It plays an important role in the layout of China's aerospace information infrastructure. However, Yunnan's remote sensing data services have long been highly dependent on ground stations outside the province. Data acquisition has prominent problems such as long time lags, incomplete coverage, high costs, and insufficient emergency response capabilities, which restricts normalized monitoring of natural resources, rapid response to geological disasters, and cross-border resource supervision.
"The 'Caiyun Constellation' project that I will officially meet with you today is a breakthrough move to make up for the shortcomings in Yunnan's local commercial remote sensing data acquisition capabilities." Li Zepeng, member of the Party Committee and Deputy Director of the Yunnan Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Exploration and Development, said that the project will change the past situation of "data dependence on external supply and applications passively respond to demand" and promote Yunnan's aerospace information industry from the past "data consumption side" to a new stage of "data and service supply side".
It is reported that the "Caiyun Constellation" project was launched at the end of 2025. It innovatively adopted the overall idea of "capacity first, then constellation, while building and applying", and was promoted in an orderly manner in two phases. Establish a full-chain "starry sky and ground network" monitoring system that integrates "constellation construction-ground reception-intelligent processing-scenario application".
Li Zepeng introduced that the current phase of the construction of the "Caiyun Constellation" is aimed at building systematic service capabilities for remote sensing satellites, covering remote sensing satellites, ground receiving stations, measurement and operation control systems, and data service platforms. Combining the "optical + hyperspectral + radar" multi-payload collaborative remote sensing satellite application system, priority is given to carrying out demonstration applications in the three core scenarios of natural resource survey and monitoring, geological disaster monitoring, and geological prospecting to verify the technical system and service efficiency.
At present, Yunnan has in-depth cooperation with the country's top commercial satellite development team, and the three remote sensing satellites jointly developed have been successfully launched into orbit. After these three satellites are put into use, they can quickly realize the fusion observation of optical, hyperspectral and radar multi-source data, and can quickly respond to the remote sensing data and application needs of various industries in Yunnan Province.
If the satellites in the sky are the "eyes", then the ground station is the key hub connecting the "eyes" and the "brain". Li Zepeng said that the "Caiyun Constellation" project ground station is located on the top of Longshan Mountain in Anning, Kunming. It is the first commercial remote sensing satellite ground receiving station in Yunnan Province and is planned to be completed and put into use in 2027.
This ground station will integrate remote sensing satellite monitoring, astronomical science popularization, starry sky culture and tourism, and immersive night view experience. In the future, it will not only undertake the measurement and operation control, high-speed data reception and other core tasks of the "Caiyun Constellation" own satellites and domestic mainstream commercial remote sensing satellites, but will also become the iconic infrastructure of Yunnan's aerospace information industry.
Li Zepeng said that this site can realize real-time landing and nearby processing of remote sensing data transiting Yunnan and surrounding areas, greatly reducing the time cost and transmission cost of data acquisition. "Especially in emergency scenarios such as geological disasters, it can achieve hour-level data response and gain valuable time for rescue and disaster relief work."
