Study on application potentiality of the first China's ocean satellite HY-1A

China has launched her first ocean color satellite HY-1A on May 15, 2002 since American ocean color satellite SeaSTAR was on the orbit in 1997. First, the properties and characteristics of HY-1A are briefly introduced; second, the quality and availability are evaluated by means of the complex signal noise ratio ( CSNR) which is simulated theoretically; third, the received HY-1A data are compared with SeaSTAR data to understand the accuracy of radiance measurement by the HY-1A; finally, the remote sensing products of ocean color and temperature are mapped to study the application potentiality of HY-1A. The results show that the HY-1A has its latent capability for the application of marine environment detection, the management and protection of marine resources, and the national rights and interests. Meanwhile some suggestions are proposed to modify the next ocean satellite.

Current Status and Main Application Achievements of Ocean Satellites

Ocean satellites have realized multi-satellite networked operation.The HY-1D satellite launched in June 2020 realized networked with HY-1C satellite,and completed the construction of ocean color satellite constellation.The HY-2D satellite launched in May 2021 is networked with the on orbit HY-2B and HY-2C satellites to complete the construction of marine dynamic environment satellite constellation.The 1 mC-SAR satellite 01 launched in November 2021 is networked with GF-3,which initially forms the marine monitoring satellite constellation.This year,the networking of 1 mC-SAR satellite 02 with satellite 01 and GF-3 is realized,and the construction of marine monitoring satellite constellation is completed.At present,the ocean satellites have the operational application capabilities of remote sensing investigation,monitoring,evaluation and supervision of marine ecology,marine disaster prevention and reduction,global oceans and Polar Regions,Sea Islands,rights and interests maintenance.

Networking Observation and Applications of Chinese Ocean Satellites

This paper presents the networking observation capabilities of Chinese ocean satellites and their diverse applications in ocean disaster prevention,ecological monitoring,and resource development.Since the inaugural launch in 2002,China has achieved substantial advancements in ocean satellite technology,forming an observation system composed of the HY-1,HY-2,and HY-3 series satellites.These satellites are integral to global ocean environmental monitoring due to their high resolution,extensive coverage,and frequent observations.Looking forward,China aims to further enhance and expand its ocean satellite capabilities through ongoing projects to support global environmental protection and sustainable development.

The first quantitative remote sensing of ocean internal waves by Chinese GF-3 SAR satellite

Quantitative analysis and retrieval is given by the State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics（SOED）,Second Institute of Oceanography（SIO）,State Oceanic Administration（SOA）,China,from the first batch of GF-3 synthetic aperture radar（SAR）data with ocean internal wave features in the Yellow Sea.

Ocean Observation from Haiyang Satellites

In 2018,China successfully launched three new Haiyang(which means ocean in Chinese,referred to as HY)satellites which are an ocean color observation satellite HY-1C(operational),an ocean dynamics environment satellite HY-2B(operational)and the China-France ocean satellite CFOSAT(experimental).In 2019,all the three satellites had finished their commissioning phases and were declared operational.HY-2A satellite continues to operate in-orbit,and its operational status is basically normal.So in 2020,China has 4 Haiyang satellites in-orbit,China’s ocean satellites enter into a new operational application phase.The operation of the ground application system of Chinese ocean satellites is stable.In 2019,Beijing,Hainan,Mudanjiang,and Hangzhou ocean satellite ground stations had received the data of HY-1C,HY-2A,HY-2B,and CFOSAT 5012 orbits and 26.46 TB data had been distributed to both domestic and international users.Chinese ocean satellite data has played an important role in marine disaster prevention and mitigation,development and management of marine resources,maintenance of marine rights and interests,marine environment protection,scientific researches,and blue economy development.

Delineation of Mesoscale Features of Ocean on Satellite IR Image

An ICSED (Improved Cluster Shade Edge-Detection) algorithm and a series of post-processing technique are discussed for automatic delineation of mesoscale structure of the ocean on digital IR images. The popular derivative-based edge operators are shown to be too sensitive to edge fine-structure and to weak gradients. The new edge-detection algorithm is ICSED (Improved Cluster Shade Edge-detection) method and it is found to be an excel lent edge detector that exhibits the characteristic of fine-structure rejection while retaining edge sharpness. This char acteristic is highly desirable for analyzing oceanographic satellite images. A sorting technique for separating clouds or land well from ocean at both day and night is described in order to obtain high quality mesoscale features on the IR image This procedure is evaluated on an AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) image with Kuroshio. Results and analyses show that the mesoscale features can be well identified by using ICSED algorithm.

On Accurate Detection of Oceanic Features from Satellite IR Data Using ICSED Method

ICSED (Improved Cluster Shade Edge Detection) algorithm and other various methods to accurately and efficiently detect edges on satellite data are presented. Error rate criterion is used to statistically evaluate the performances of these methods in detecting oceanic features for both noise free and noise contaminated AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) IR image with Kuroshio. Also, practical experiments in detecting the eddy of Kuroshio with these methods are carried out for comparison. Results show that the ICSED algorithm has more advantages than other methods in detecting mesoscale features of ocean. Finally, the effectiveness of window size of ICSED method to oceanic features detection is quantitatively discussed.

Satellite-observed significant improvement in nearshore transparency of the Bohai Sea during pollution control

The Bohai Sea(BS)is the unique semi-closed inland sea of China,characterized by degraded water quality due to significant terrestrial pollution input.In order to improve its water quality,a dedicated action named“Uphill Battles for Integrated Bohai Sea Management”(UBIBSM,2018–2020)was implemented by the Chinese government.To evaluate the action effectiveness toward water quality improvement,variability of the satelliteobserved water transparency(Secchi disk depth,Z_(SD))was explored,with special emphasis on the nearshore waters(within 20 km from the coastline)prone to terrestrial influence.(1)Compared to the status before the action began(2011–2017),majority(87.3%)of the nearshore waters turned clear during the action implementation period(2018–2020),characterized by the elevated Z_(SD)by 11.6%±12.1%.(2)Nevertheless,the improvement was not spatially uniform,with higher Z_(SD)improvement in provinces of Hebei,Liaoning,and Shandong(13.2%±16.5%,13.2%±11.6%,10.8%±10.2%,respectively)followed by Tianjin(6.2%±4.7%).(3)Bayesian trend analysis found the abrupt Z_(SD)improvement in April 2018,which coincided with the initiation of UBIBSM,implying the water quality response to pollution control.More importantly,the independent statistics of land-based pollutant discharge also indicated that the significant reduction of terrestrial pollutant input during the UBIBSM action was the main driver of observed Z_(SD)improvement.(4)Compared with previous pollution control actions in the BS,UBIBSM was found to be the most successful one during the past 20 years,in terms of transparency improvement over nearshore waters.The presented results proved the UBIBSM-achieved remarkable water quality improvement,taking the advantage of long-term consistent and objective data record from satellite ocean color observation.

Achievements and Goals of China's Satellite Oceanic Remote Sensing

This paper is divided into three parts.In the first part,it describes the major objects of o-cean monitoring and investigation by means of satellite remote sensing technology,including the observation of dynamic phenomena of ocean,ocean color and sea surface temperature as well as mapping of coastal zone and islands.In the second part,some research results of oceanic environment which were obtained in the past decade in China are presented.In the third part,some fundamental technologies are described,to which we should pay attention in order to make great contribution to marine environment by using satellite remote sensing technology in the coming few years in China.

Application of the HY-1 satellite to sea ice monitoring and forecasting

The HY-1A satellite is the first oceanic satellite of China. During the winter of 2002-2003, the data of the HY-1A were applied to the sea ice monitoring and forecasting for the Bohai Sea of China for the first time. The sea ice retrieval system of the HY-1 A has been constructed. It receives 1B data from the satellite, outputs sea ice images and provides digital products of ice concentration, ice thickness and ice edge, which can be used as important information for sea ice monitoring and the initial fields of the numeric sea ice forecast and as one of the reference data for the sea ice forecasting verification. The sea ice retrieval system of the satellite is described, including its processes, methods and parameters. The retrieving results and their application to the sea ice monitoring and forecasting for the Bohai Sea are also discussed.

Progress in the application of ocean color remote sensing in China

After many years＇ endeavor of research and application practice, the ocean color remote sensing in China has been growing into a new technique with valuable practicality from its initiate stage of trial research. With the aim of operational service, several kinds of ocean color remote sensing application systems have been developed and realized the long-term marine environmental monitoring utilizing the real-time or near real-time satellite and airborne remote sensing data. New progresses in the technology and application of ocean color remote sensing in China are described, including the research of key techniques and the development of various application systems. Meanwhile, according to the application status and demand, the prospective development of Chinese ocean color remote sensing is brought forward. With Chinese second ocean color satellite （ HY-1 B） orbiting on 11 April 2007 and the development of airborne ocean color remote sensing system for Chinese surveillance planes, great strides will take place in Chinese ocean color remote sensing application with the unique function in marine monitoring, resources management and national security, etc.

Near-resonance tidal evolution of the Earth-Moon system influenced by orbital-scale climate change

We build a conceptual coupled model of the climate and tidal evolution of the Earth-Moon system to find the influence of the former on the latter. An energy balance model is applied to calculate steady-state temperature field from the mean annual insolation as a function of varying astronomical parameters. A harmonic oscillator model is applied to integrate the lunar orbit and Earth’s rotation with the tidal torque dependent on the dominant natural frequency of ocean. An ocean geometry acts as a bridge between temperature and oceanic frequency. On assumptions of a fixed hemispherical continent and an equatorial circular lunar orbit, considering only the 41 kyr periodicity of Earth’s obliquity ε and the M2 tide, simulations are performed near tidal resonance for 106 yr. It is verified that the climate can influence the tidal evolution via ocean. Compared with the tidal evolution with constant ε, that with varying ε is slowed down;the EarthMoon distance oscillates in phase with ε before the resonance maximum but exactly out of phase after that;the displacement of the oscillation is in positive correlation with the difference between oceanic frequency and tidal frequency.

中国海洋卫星发展现状和主要应用进展

China’s ocean satellites are divided into three series based on ocean color satellites(HY-1),ocean dynamic environment satellites(HY-2)and ocean monitoring satellites(HY-3).The three series of ocean satellites operate today in a multi-satellite network.The HY-1 D satellite launched in June 2020 and the HY-1 C satellite,already in orbit,realized a network observation capability and completed the formation of the ocean color satellite constellation.The HY-2 D satellite launched in May 2021 joined the HY-2 B and HY-2 C satellites,which have been on orbit already and completed a network observation capability,thus establishing the ocean dynamic environment satellite constellation.The GF-302 satellite(1 m C-SAR 01)launched in November 2021 has networked with GF-3,initially establishing an ocean monitoring satellite constellation,which has finally completed its construction with the launch of the GF-303 satellite(1 m C-SAR 02)in April 2022.The GF-3 three-satellite network effectively boasts a wide capability in applications of satellite data products and services in many fields,such as ocean environmental monitoring,ocean disaster prevention and mitigation,marine scientific research and polar research.