China plans to launch a satellite to observe ocean colours and survey the great seas, says Xinhua News Agency. According to information in a recently issued report, the State Oceanic Administration is looking into launching the nation’s first ocean colour remote sensing satellite next year.
Su Jilan, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Society of Oceanography and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, says: “The ocean colour satellite observes optical features of sea water to study primary productivity of ocean and movement of sands and red tides in offshore areas. This is an important process in oceanic research.”
The Administration, for example, has been using data from remote sensing satellites to monitor red tides in coastal areas. Earlier this year the Administartion had called on vigilant monitoring against red tide, which could kill fish and other aquatic organisms.
In May outbreak of red tides over wide areas were reported at the Zhoushan Islands in the eastern Zhejiang Province. The Administration attributed the outbreak to pollution from industrial waste water and large-scale farming along coastal waters.
The latest available figures indicate that China employes tens of thousands of technical staff from over 300 research and educational institutions in oceanic research.
In the past twenty years China has applied remote sensing, biology and information technologies in oceanic research. The launch of the first ocean colour satellite is a sign that the ocean research program has advanced to a higher level.
