The invention discloses a 
system and a method for compressing 
satellite images with low 
bit rate. The 
system comprises a control module, a 
wavelet transformation module, a CCSDS scanning coding module and a code 
stream splicing module. In the 
system and the method, image data are divided into a plurality of 32X32 (or 64X64 and 128X128) small images; then, the small images are transmitted into the 
wavelet transformation module, the scanning coding module and the code 
stream splicing module for obtaining compressing code streams. The 
wavelet transformation module, the scanning coding module and the code 
stream splicing module are used for line production among image blocks; and the scanning coding module is used for the line production along bit planes. The compressing effect of the system and the method for compressing the images is between 
JPEG 2000 and EZW; when the compression is carried out at a low 
bit rate, the compressing effect is equivalent to 
JPEG2000; a decoding re-synchronization mechanism is adopted for preventing error codes of space data from diffusing in transmission, with low 
power consumption; and extensively used parallel operation and a 
line structure increase the 
processing speed of a 
chip and meet the 
macro compressing requirement of the 
satellite images.