The FORMOSAT-2 (was called ROCSAT-2 formerly) of Taiwan is a small satellite of 746 kg mass for two remote sensing missions with 5 years
in the designed mission life. Its mission orbit is sun-synchronous of 891 km altitude for exactly 14 revolutions per day. For earth observation, the
payload is an advanced high resolution remote sensing instrument (RSI)
with ground sampling distance (GSD) 2 m in panchromatic (PAN) band and
8 m in four multi-spectral (MS) bands. For upward lightning observation,
the payload is an imager of sprites and upper atmospheric lightning
(ISUAL). Launch date of FORMOSAT-2 was on 20 May 2004. After 5
years of mission operations in orbit, i.e., 100% of the mission life, its
worldwide effectiveness in the international cooperation and contribution in Earth observation is very pronounced. This paper assesses the global
effectiveness of FORMOSAT-2 based on the following two areas:
international cooperation and international contribution. We discuss the two areas from the following different aspects: satellite development, Earth science and ecological niche research, preservation of the world heritages,contribution to the International Charter: space and major disasters,observation of suspected North Korea and Iran nuclear facilities, and scientific observation of the atmospheric transient luminous events (TLEs).It is concluded that FORMOSAT-2’s global effectiveness in both international cooperation and contribution in Earth observation is definite.Its development and operation is very valuable to the whole world.