Past and Present Ocean Color Sensor/ Project
Remote sensing of ocean colour from space began in 1978 with the successful launch of NASA’s Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS). Despite the fact that CZCS was an experimental mission intended to last only one year, the sensor continued to generate a valuable time-series of data over selected test sites until early 1986. Ten years passed before other sources of ocean-colour data became available with the launch of other sensors, and in particular the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view sensor (SeaWiFS) in 1997 on board the NASA SeaStar satellite. Subsequent sensors have included NASA’s Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the Aqua and Tearra satellites and ESA’s MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) onboard its environmental satellite Envisat. Several new ocean-colour sensors have recently been launched, including the Indian Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM-2) on-board ISRO‘s Oceansat-2 satellite and the Korean Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI), which is the first ocean colour sensor to be launched on a geostationary satellite. More ocean colour sensors are planned over the next decade by various space agencies.
Ocean Colour Radiometry and its derived products are also seen as a fundamental Essential Climate Variable as defined by the Global Climate Observing System. Ocean colour datasets provide the only global synoptic perspective of primary production in the oceans, giving insight into the role of the world’s oceans in the global carbon cycle.
Following are the ocean color sensor/ projects that have the coverage of Malaysian and Southeast Asian waters. Information about ocean color sensor can also be accessed through IOCCG web page.
http://www.ioccg.org/sensors_ioccg.html
CZCS (NASA)
This is the first ocean color sensor for global observation. It is more to experimental sensor than operational. However, the data gathered from this sensor had provided detail understanding and knowledge on the development of today ocean color remote sensing.
OCTS (JAPAN) (http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ADEOS/Directory/index.html)
SeaWiFS (NASA) (http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html)
MODIS (NASA) (http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/)
There are two MODIS sensors, Terra and Aqua. It has been applied widely for atmospheric, land and ocean application. For instance, MODIS Global Fire Monitoring has been used for the forest fire monitoring in South East Asian Region.
MERIS (ESA, Europe) (http://envisat.esa.int/instruments/meris/)
OCI (Taiwan) (http://www.oci.ntou.edu.tw/)
GLI (Japan) (http://suzaku.eorc.jaxa.jp/GLI/index.html)
NPOESS (USA) (http://www.ipo.noaa.gov/)
Current Operational Ocean Color Sensors
| SENSOR | AGENCY | SATELLITE | LAUNCH DATE | SWATH (km) |
SPATIAL RESOLUTION (m) |
BANDS | SPECTRAL COVERAGE (nm) |
ORBIT |
| COCTS CZI |
CNSA (China) |
HY-1B (China) |
11 April 2007 | 2400 500 |
1100 250 |
10 4 |
402 – 12,500 433 – 695 |
Polar |
| GOCI | KARI/KORDI (South Korea) |
COMS | 26 June 2010 | 2500 | 500 | 8 | 400 – 865 | Geostationary |
| HICO | ONR and DOD Space Test Programme |
JEM-EF Int. Space Stn. |
18 Sept. 2009 | 50 km Selected coastal scenes |
100 | 124 | 380 – 1000 | 51.6o, 15.8 orbits p/d |
| MERSI | CNSA (China) |
FY-3A (China) |
27 May 2008 | 2400 | 250/1000 | 20 | 402-2155 | Polar |
| MERSI | CNSA (China) |
FY-3B (China) |
5 November 2010 | 2400 | 250/1000 | 20 | 402-2155 | Polar |
| MODIS-Aqua | NASA (USA) |
Aqua (EOS-PM1) |
4 May 2002 | 2330 | 250/500/1000 | 36 | 405-14,385 | Polar |
| MODIS-Terra | NASA (USA) |
Terra (EOS-AM1) |
18 Dec. 1999 | 2330 | 250/500/1000 | 36 | 405-14,385 | Polar |
| OCM-2 | ISRO (India) |
Oceansat-2 (India) |
23 Sept. 2009 | 1420 | 360/4000 | 8 | 400 – 900 | Polar |
| POLDER-3 | CNES (France) |
Parasol | 18 Dec. 2004 | 2100 | 6000 | 9 | 443-1020 | Polar |
| VIIRS | NOAA /NASA (USA) |
NPP | 28 Oct. 2011 | 3000 | 370 / 740 | 22 | 402 – 11,800 | Polar |
Source: http://www.ioccg.org/sensors/current.html
Reference:
IOCCG (http://www.ioccg.org/sensors/current.html)
Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_color)