Science

CBERS 4A

China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite · CNSA / INPE (China-Brazil)

The latest satellite in the 25-plus-year China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite partnership — one of the longest-running international space collaborations between a developing and emerging space power outside the traditional US-Europe-Russia-Japan axis. CBERS-4A provides multispectral imagery at 2-meter resolution, freely distributed across Latin America and Africa through Brazil's INPE space agency. The program has made Brazil a significant provider of open Earth observation data across the developing world, all built on a technology-sharing partnership that began in 1988 as two nations outside the traditional space powers decided to build spacecraft together rather than depend on either the US or USSR.