China’s first high-resolution imaging satellite, the Gaofen-1, has proven to be a boon to the government, and not just in terms of tracking the weather. The high-tech satellite has been busy helping various government departments solve problems ranging from agriculture to crime.

A number of images collected by Gaofen-1 were published earlier this week that are as impressive as they are beautifully detailed. But despite providing stunning images, the satellite has been instrumental in aiding China’s law enforcement.

For example, Gaofen-1 discovered several poppy fields in Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Hebei. It is also credited with discovering marijuana crops in Jilin and Inner Mongolia, the largest ever in China’s history. It has even discovered more than ten illegal border crossings in XInjiang and on the China-Korea border.

The versatile satellite has also proven beneficial in other areas. In February 2014, Gaofen-1 was used to find fissures in Xinjiang to better understand earthquakes. In July 2013, it was used to find earthquake damage in Zhangxian County, Gansu. As well, large-scale off-shore oil deposits were discovered by the imaging satellite near Fujian.

Last year, the Ministry of Agriculture used information from Gaofen-1 to investigate autumnal crops in five provinces. What’s more, Gaofen-1 is just the first of seven such high-resolution satellites to be in operational by the year 2020. The Gaofen-2 was just launched last week.

Here are a number of images from Gaofen-1 that have been color-corrected:

Photos: The Verge