OceanSat-2 - Earth Online

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Monitoring water on Earth's surface

ESA's Earth observation satellites are playing a leading role in furthering our understanding of how Earth's terrestrial hydrosphere is being influenced by humankind.

Satellites investigate Earth’s terrestrial hydrosphere

ESA’s Earth observation satellites are playing a leading role in furthering our understanding of how Earth’s water cycle is being influenced by humankind.

Satellite data central to ocean monitoring

Over 95% of Earth’s water is found in our oceans, and yet sadly, oceans are under stress from climate change and pollution. Monitoring our oceans is vital for Earth’s survival and satellites are the primary means of long-term and independent observation of our vast ocean bodies and their associated coastal zones.

An overview of ESA's Third Party Missions programme

ESA’s Third Party Missions programme consists of almost 50 satellite missions, which are owned by organisations around the world. ESA has agreements with these organisations to acquire, process, and distribute data from their missions

ESA Third Party Missions timeline

We've released a new timeline to illustrate the history of the ESA Third Party Missions.

About OceanSat-2

OceanSat-2 is an oceanography satellite from India which launched on 23September 2009 and remains operational.

*Mission Parameters*
Orbit Height	720km
Orbit Type	Polar Sun-synchronous
Orbit Period	99.31 minutes
Revisit Time	2 days
Inclination	98.28°
Equator Crossing Time	12:00

OceanSat-2 Objectives

The main objectives of OceanSat-2 are to study surface winds and ocean surface strata, observation of chlorophyll concentrations, monitoring of phytoplankton blooms, study of atmospheric aerosols and suspended sediments in the water. OceanSat-2 plays an important role in forecasting the onset of the monsoon and its subsequent advancement over the Indian subcontinent and over South-East Asia.

OceanSat-2 Instruments

OCM-2 (Ocean Colour Monitor-2)

OCM-2 is an improved version of the one flown on OceanSat-1. OCM-2 is a solid-state radiometer providing observations in eight spectral bands in the VNIR region. It is an 8-band multi-spectral camera operating in the Visible – Near infrared spectral range. This camera provides an instantaneous geometric field of view of 360 m and a swath of 1420 km. OCM can be tilted up to + 20 degrees along track.

*OCM Instrument Specifications*
Parameter	Value
Spectral Range (8 bands)	0.4 - 0.9 µm (VNIR)
Scan Plane Tilt	±20º,to avoid sun glitter
Camera MTF	>20% at Nyquist frequency
IFOV at nadir (spatial resolution)	LAC: 360 m x 236 m GAC: 1 km
FOV (swath)	1420 km (±43º)
Tilt Capability	±20º along track
Data Quantization	12 bit
Data Rate (real-time)	20.8 Mbit/s
Instrument Mass	78 kg
SNR	> 512 (saturation)
Effective Focal Length	20 mm
Absolute Radiometric Accuracy	<10%
Onboard Calibration	2 LEDs per band
Instrument Power	134 W

*Table of Bands*
Spectral Band	Wavelength Range (nm)	Application
B1	404-424	Yellow substance absorption
B2	431-451	Chlorophyll absorption
B3	476-496	Chlorophyll and other pigments
B4	500-520	Turbidity and suspended sediments
B5	546-566	Chlorophyll reference
B6	610-630	Total suspended matter estimation
B7	725-755	Atmospheric correction
B8	845-885	Atmospheric correction/aerosol optical thickness

Non-scientific Measuring Instruments

Scanning Scatterometer (SCAT): an active microwave device used to determine ocean surface level wind vectors through estimation of radar backscatter.

Radio Occultation Sounder for Atmospheric Studies (ROSA): a GPS occultation receiver provided by ASI (the Italian Space Agency) with an objective to characterise the lower atmosphere and the ionosphere.

OceanSat-2 Data

DATA DESCRIPTION

ESA offers to registered user the access through the Online Dissemination server to the following data collections

OceanSat-2 data

OceanSat-2 INSTRUMENTS

OceanSat-2 DATA