China successfully launched its second oceanic survey satellite "Haiyang-1B" (Ocean 1B) from Taiyuan Satellite Launching Centre on Wednesday morning. The home-made satellite was launched at 11:27 a.m. and reached the target orbit aboard a Long March-2C carrier rocket. The "Haiyang-1B", a crucial component of China's three dimensional oceanic survey system, would be used to monitor the colour and temperature of the ocean. According to Sun Zhihui, director of the State Oceanic Administration, the satellite will aid China's development and utilisation of oceanic resources, construction of bayou and ports, monitoring and prevention of oceanic pollution, resource investigation and the development of coastal areas as well as for study of global environmental changes. Satellite ocean remote sensing technology plays a critical role in oceanic research, maritime environment and disaster relief and other academic research. There are more than 30 oceanic satellites in orbit around the planet. Oceanic satellites are urgently needed in China to develop the country's marine economy, providing marine disaster early warning and safeguarding the nation's marine rights. China launched its first oceanic survey satellite Haiyang-1A in May 2002 to monitor ocean colour and temperature using remote sensing technology Haiyang-1A monitors the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea.
"The operational life of Haiyang-1B is expected to reach three years, a year longer than Haiyang-1A. The new satellite provides three times as much information. The satellite's observational devices now have a 3,000-kilometre range -- up from 1,300 kilometres -- and its imaging devices provide higher resolution photography" - Bai Zhaoguang, Chief scientist .
Haiyang-1B has a stronger structure than Haiyang-1A, enabling it to withstand bigger shocks and jolts. Haiyang-1B has software and internet capabilities that allow it to repair itself in space, saying that 10 computers work together to repair the craft if a technical breakdown occurs. The breakdown of a solar cell driver shortened Haiyang-1A's operational life. But Haiyang-1B's improved technology will enable it to solve this kind of problem by itself.
China will launch the Haiyang-2 satellite, or ocean dynamic environment satellites, in 2009 and is currently analysing customer demand for the Haiyang-3 satellite, or ocean surveillance satellite.
"Although China is one of only five countries in the world able to independently launch ocean colour remote sensing satellites, we still lag behind developed countries in this field" - Sun Zhihui
China hopes 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, to enlarge the Sanya oceanic satellite ground station and to build national satellite data receiving stations in the Antarctica and the Arctic.
China will launch the second-generation oceanic survey satellite, "Haiyang-1B" (Ocean 1B), this April. The country's second oceanic satellite ¨C "Haiyang-1B" (Ocean 1B) - is the successor of "Haiyang-1A" (Ocean 1A), which was launched in 2002. According to Jiang Xingwei, director of the National Satellite Ocean Application Service, the surveying ability of "Haiyang-1B" has been improved greatly from the first-generation model, and its data collection capacity has doubled. The "Haiyang-2" (Ocean 2) series of satellites would be used to collect data on offshore wind fields, ocean circulation, tides, and sea surface temperatures.
Chinese scientists plan to put into orbit the Haiyang 1-B (Ocean 1-B) on a Long March 2 carrier by the end of this year to monitor marine environment and disasters.
The oceanic satellite Haiyang 1-B will be a more advanced version of Haiyang 1-A, with improved technology including greater memory capacity. The minisatellite mission was designed/developed by CAST (Chinese Academy of Space Technology) and sponsored by the State Ocean Administration (SOA), Beijing, China. According to Sun Laiyan, vice director of the Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defence, the Haiyang 1-B Satellite (also referred to as HY-2) was still undergoing testing. Sun told a national conference on oceanic science and technology that the technical flaws of the Haiyang 1-A had been removed from the upgraded satellite, and the data quality to be collected would be improved. Bai Zhaoguang, chief scientist on the Haiyang 1-B project, said the main function of the Haiyang 1-B would be to observe sea surface height, waves, currents and temperatures. The satellite's operational life was expected to reach three years, one year more than that of Haiyang 1-A. The Haiyang 1-A, China's first experimental satellite to use ocean colour detecting, was successfully launched on May 15 2002 and had a designed lifespan of two years. The "colour" of the ocean is determined by the interactions of light with the water. The satellite can measure a wide array of shades to determine levels of phytoplankton, sediments, and dissolved organic chemicals, which affect the colour. According to Sun Zhihui, director of the State Oceanic Administration, the oceanic satellite based on a CAST-968 minisatellite platform, together with a series of weather and resources satellites, would become China's most important satellite constellation.
