BEIJING, July 18 (China Space News) —  China plans to launch the Gaofen-3 and Gaofen-5 satellites for the Gaofen High-Resolution Earth Observation System in the second half of 2016 and in 2017, according to the 2016 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) held in Beijing from July 10 to July 15.

China started the Gaofen project with the launch of Gaofen-1 in April 2013. It aims to launch seven high-definition observation satellites before 2020, designed for disaster prevention, surveillance of geological disasters and forest disasters and weather forecast.