Oceansat-1

Description

The Ocean Color Monitor (OCM) is carried aboard the Oceansat-1 polar orbiting satellite. This satellite operates in a near-polar sun synchronous orbit. OCM is a solid state camera operating in eight narrow spectral bands. The camera is used to collect data on chlorophyll concentration, detect and monitor phytoplankton blooms and obtain data on atmospheric aerosols and suspended sediments in the water.

OCM is an 8-channel sensor (whose spectral bands match that of the Orbview-2) SeaWiFS sensor, providing both true-color and ocean color views.

Spacecraft Characteristics

• Sun-synchronous polar orbit over the Earth
• At an approximate altitude of 720 km.

Instruments

• OCM - Ocean Color Monitor
  • Eight channel imager, all at 360m resolution
  • Channel 1 - Visible (0.402-0.422 micron)
  • Channel 2 - Shortwave (0.433-0.453 micron)
  • Channel 3 - Water Vapor (0.480-0.500 micron)
  • Channel 4 - Visible (0.500-0.520 micron)
  • Channel 5 - Visible (0.545-0.565 micron)
  • Channel 6 - Visible (0.660-0.680 micron)
  • Channel 7 - InfraRed (0.745-0.785 micron)
  • Channel 8 - InfraRed (0.845-0.88 micron)

Orbit Schedule

The Oceansat-1 (IRS-P4) spacecraft repeats its subtrack every other day, providing identical coverage of a given area every 48 hours. On successive days, the subtrack is offset by roughly half of the 1420km swath width. The orbit period is roughly 90 minutes, but only transmits for approximately 10-minute periods, on a contracted basis.