HY-2 Ushers in the New Era of Ocean Monitoring for China
At 6:57, on August 16, 2011, Haiyang-2 satellite was successfully launched into the space, ushering a new era of all weather full time monitoring of the ocean dynamics.
Different with the HY-1, HY-2 adopted a new type of monitoring technique which could free the satellite from the effect of the cloud, thunder and rain.
The oceanic satellite of China experienced a start from nothing to the launching of a single satellite, then to a serial of satellites and the significant role of the application of oceanic satellites becomes more obvious.
The objective of HY-2 is to monitor the dynamic ocean environment with microwave sensors to detect sea surface wind field, sea surface height and sea surface temperature. It will include an altimeter dual-frequency in Ku and C-bands, a scatterometer and a microwave imager.
The HY-3 will be launched before 2015. The information provided by the HY satellites will support the monitoring of oceanic disasters.
HY-1A and HY-1B (respectively launched on May, 2002 and April, 2007) are designed to measure the ocean color and temperature with the visible and infrared sensor, while HY-2 focused on the marine dynamic environment. HY-3 will combine visible/infrared and microwave sensors.
