Proceedings Article | 8 May 2003
KEYWORDS: Satellites, Remote sensing, Ocean optics, Environmental sensing, Water, Algorithm development, Oceanography, Atmospheric corrections, Synthetic aperture radar, Sensors
Since the 1980s, a great attention has been paid to the advanced technique remote sensing in China, especially to development of satellite programs for marine environment. On September 7, 1988, China launched her first polar orbit satellite FY-1A for meteorological and oceanographic application (water color and temperature) and second satellite FY-1B two years later. In May 1999, China launched her second generation of environment satellite FY-1C with higher sensitivity, more channels and stable operation.
The special ocean color satellite HY-1 has been in the orbit on May 15, 2002, whose main purpose is detection of marine environment of China Sea. HY-1 is a first Chinese ocean color satellite which was launched as a piggyback satellite on FY-1 satellite using Long March rocket. On the satellite there are two sensors, one is the Chinese Ocean Color and Temperature Scanner (COCTS), the other is CCD Coastal Zone Imager (CZI).
The technique systems of ocean color remote sensing have been developed by Second Institute of Oceanography (SIO), State Oceanic Administration (SOA), in 1997 and by National Satellite Ocean Application Service (NSOAS) in 2002. Those systems include the functions of data receiving, processing, distribution, calibration, validation and application. SIO has capability to receive and process the FY-1 and AVHRR data since 1989. It is also a SeaWiFS scientific research station authorized by NASA, USA, to freely receive SeaWiFS data Since September 16, 1997. NSOAS has capability to receive and process the data of HY-1, AVHRR, MODIS and Geo satellite.
In the recent years, some local algorithms of atmospheric correction and inversion of ocean color are developed for FY-1C , SeaWiFS and HY-1 to improve the accuracy of the measurement from satellites efficiently. The satellite data have being applied in monitoring marine environment, such as the spatial distribution of chlorophyll, primary products, suspended material, transparency and yellow substance, red tide detection and coastal current study.