EO·Atlas
CFOSAT
Compiled from public sources on 2026-06-14. Not independently verified by Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales.
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CFOSAT (Chinese-French Oceanography Satellite) is a joint CNES-CNSA mission for simultaneous sea-surface wind and ocean-wave observations, launched on 2018-10-29.[1][2] It flies a sun-synchronous orbit at approximately 500-519 km altitude with a morning descending equator crossing.[3] The satellite carries two radar instruments: SWIM, a Ku-band rotating multi-beam radar altimeter developed by CNES for directional wave spectra and significant wave height retrieval, and SCAT, a Ku-band scatterometer built by the Chinese side for ocean-surface wind measurement.[1][4] As of the research date, SWIM remains active; the SCAT scatterometer has been inactive or degraded since approximately 2022 per WMO OSCAR records, while CEOS lists mission status as operational nominal.[3][2] CFOSAT supports global sea-state and ocean-surface wind monitoring for marine meteorology and climate applications.[1]
All fields
| current status | degraded |
| operator | Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales |
| launch vehicle | casc-long-march-2c |
| Launched | 2018-10-29 |
| orbit type | Sun-synchronous orbit, about 500-519 km altitude, 06:00-07:00 descending equator crossing time |
| tasking supported | false |
| current geographic priority | Global sea-state and ocean-surface wind observations; WMO records SWIM active and SCAT degraded/inactive after 2022. |
| Last updated | 2026-06-14 |
| claim status | agency-sourced |
Compositional position
- [1]AVISO+ mission page: CFOSATagency doc2026-06-14
- [2]CFOSAT, WMO OSCAR satellite recordcommunity2026-06-14
- [3]CFOSAT mission summary, CEOS EO Handbookcommunity2026-06-14
- [4]SWIM, WMO OSCAR instrument recordcommunity2026-06-14