The station, in Sanya in China's southern island province of Hainan, was launched by the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
China will now be able to obtain satellite remote sensing data of the country's southern territorial waters for civil use directly from its ground-based receiving facilities, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The station has two sets of data receiving and transmission systems, getting information from more than 10 satellites, it said.
China has launched aggressive patrolling of South China Sea in recent times in the midst of maritime disputes with Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan.