An overview of ROCSAT-1 OCI science team and science data distribution center

The ROCSAT-1, the first Taiwan's scientific experimental satellite, will be launched by February 1999 to a 600 km circular orbit. It will carry an ocean color instrument on board to monitor ocean color. This space borne ocean color instrument is called Ocean Color Imager. It is a multi-spectral push-broom imager that is designed to map six reflected spectral radiances from ocean surfaces. The ROCSAT-1 is on a 35 degrees inclination orbit that is different to most of operational remote sensing satellites which are placed on a sun-synchronous orbit to cover the entire earth. The selection of the orbit was based on the need of maximum contact time with the ground station in Taiwan. There are two major groups for the scientific purpose of Ocean Color Imager, the science team and the science data distribution center. The aims of science team are to do sensor calibration, to correct atmospheric errors, to develop the bio-optical algorithms, and to work on data validation. Data from the ocean color instrument will be processed and then distributed by the data distribution center. Data are free to the scientific and educational communities. They can request the data through internet or regular mail after the satellite launch. The web site of the data center and science team is at "http://www.oci.ntou.edu.tw.".