Under the cloak of night, at exactly 2:31:24 AM on June 11th, China’s fourth ocean color satellite, Ocean One D, soared into the sky aboard the Long March II rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. The mission was a resounding success. Just imagine the sight of the rocket lighting up the sky like a blazing torch (check out the picture below for the actual moment).
(Credits: Ren Yueming)
The Ocean One D satellite was developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation’s Fifth Research Institute. Once in orbit, it joined the Ocean One C satellite, launched on September 7, 2018, to form China’s first ocean civil business satellite constellation.
After the successful networking of Ocean One C and D, they began to provide comprehensive coverage of the global ocean, capturing morning and afternoon observations. Each day, they produce two global ocean color and vegetation index remote sensing images, and four sea surface temperature products. This enables the monitoring of global ocean water color and temperature, offering valuable data for understanding marine primary productivity distribution, the status of marine fisheries and aquaculture resources, and environmental quality. This, in turn, provides a scientific basis for guiding offshore fishing, and the rational development and utilization of ocean resources, significantly boosting the economic benefits of China’s ocean.
The satellite also provides data services for the investigation of coastal resources and the marine environment in China’s coastal areas, disaster prevention and mitigation, sustainable use of marine resources, and early warning and environmental protection for marine ecosystems. It supports applications in meteorology, environmental ecology, agriculture, water conservancy, and transportation, significantly enhancing the effective observation capabilities of global ocean color, coastal resources, and ecological environment, propelling China to the forefront in the field of ocean color remote sensing.
(Credits: Gao Xiaofang)
This mission marked the 334th launch of the Long March series of carrier rockets. It’s like watching a seasoned athlete breaking a new record, isn’t it?
The images used in this article are partially provided by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation’s Fifth Research Institute. The article was edited by Yang Cheng and Wu Yajing, with proofreading by Gao Yiming and Lin Jiaxin, and supervised by Huang Xi.
(Credits: Tian Yuan)
