BEIJING, China, April 17, 2007 - Satnews Daily - China is positioning itself as a key player among countries operating civilian ocean monitoring satellites.
Its recent and successful launch of the advanced ocean monitoring satellite, Haiyang-1B (Ocean-1B), and its announced intent to launch five more ocean monitoring satellites in the near future will give China about one fifth of the world’s total number of these specialized satellites. There are currently some 30 such satellites in orbit, said China.
China believes satellite ocean remote sensing technology plays a critical role in oceanic research, maritime environment and disaster relief and academic research. Sun Zhihui, director of China’s State Oceanic Administration, said oceanic satellites are urgently needed in China to develop the country's marine economy, provide marine disaster early warning and safeguard the nation's legitimate marine rights.
China plans to have a system consisting of ocean color remote sensing satellites, ocean dynamic environment satellites and ocean surveillance satellites.
“Although China is one of only five countries in the world able to independently launch ocean color remote sensing satellites, we still lag behind developed countries in this field,” said Sun.
He said China hoped to be able to close the research gap with developed countries in satellite launching and observation technologies and control and ground application technologies by 2015.
The State Oceanic Administration plans to establish oceanic satellite ground stations in Mudanjiang City, in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, and in Beijing. It also intends to enlarge the Sanya oceanic satellite ground station and to build national satellite data receiving stations in the Antarctica and the Arctic.
Haiyang-1B is an ocean color remote sensing satellite with twice the data collection capacity of Haiyang-1A, its predecessor. Information about the color of the ocean allows scientists to detect the presence of algal blooms, river plumes and other events.
Haiyang-1B, reportedly developed with the assistance of China’s military, was recently launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launching Center in northern Shanxi province. The new satellite’s operating life has been extended to three years.
Haiyang-1A, launched in May 2002, monitors ocean color and temperature using remote sensing technology. It monitors the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea.
