Ocean N0. 1A has functioned effectively since it was sent into orbit more than a year ago. The satellite, combined with its ground system, has played an important role in collecting data for monitoring the oceanic environment and forecasting natural disasters.

According to statistics from the State Ocean Administration, the satellite has completed more than 1,000 data collection assignments in the past year. The areas of coverage include Chinese territorial waters, the Atlantic Ocean, the South Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.

With the data from the satellite, the State Ocean Satellite Application Center conducts relevant analysis and works out various oceanic intelligence reports. With the help of these reports, relevant departments have discovered three separate Red tides, outbreaks of algal blooms that endanger fish stocks, in the Bohai Sea, along the east China coasts, and the Yellow Sea.

The data have also been applied to the forecasting of ice formation, the surveillance of fishing ground environments, numerous scientific expeditions of the Antarctica and the monitoring of major river mouths.

As an experimental satellite, the Ocean N0.1A has also completed a number of tests in detecting water color in the past year. With the improvement of the Ocean N0.1A series of satellites, and the accumulation of oceanic data, the satellites will play increasingly important role in effectively protecting the oceanic rights and interests of China, and assist the sustainable exploitation of oceanic resources.

(CCTV.com June 14, 2003)