OCI and ROCSAT-1 Development, Operations, and Applications

This paper describes the development, operations, and applications of ROCSAT-l and its Ocean Color Imager (OCI) remote-sensing payload. It is the first satellite program of NSPO. The satellite was successfully launched by Lockheed Martin's Athena on January 26, 1999 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. ROCSAT-l is a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) experimental satellite. Its circular orbit has an altitude of 600km and an inclination angle of 35 degrees. The satellite is designed to carry out scientific research missions, including ocean color imaging, experiments on ionospheric plasma and electrodynamics, and experiments using Ka-band (20∼30GHz) communication payloads. The OCI payload is utilized to observe the ocean color in 7 bands (including one redundant band) of Visible and Near-Infrared (434nm∼889nm) range with the resolution of 800m at nadir and the swath of 702km. It employs high performance telecentric optics, push-broom scanning method using Charge Coupled Devices (CCD) and large-scale integrated circuit chips. The water leaving radiance is estimated from the total inputs to the OCI, including the atmospheric scattering. The post-process estimates the water leaving radiance and generates different end products. The OCI has taken images since February 1999 after completing the early orbit checkout. Analyses have been performed to evaluate the performances of the instrument in orbit and to compare them with the pre-launch test results. This paper also briefly describes the ROCSAT-l mission operations. The spacecraft operating modes and ROCSAT Ground Segment operations are delineated, and the overall initial operations of ROCSAT-l are summarized.