Image-2

This image shows the surface temperature of the area around the Yamato bank inthe middle of the Sea of Japan and Vladivostok, at about 11:32am JST, October1, 1996. The temperature of a place is shown by its color which is defined, by the color bar at the right-bottom corner of the image, that the temperature increases as the color changes from violet to red, while the absolute value of the temperature will be determined by future calibration. White parts in the image show clouds. The absolute value of the temperature will be determined by future calibration of Ocean Color and Tempreature Scanner (OCTS).

A warm water vortex revolving clockwise can be seen red in the center of the image and cold water seen in the north part of the Sea of Japan. The East Korea Warm Current which has come up along the coast of the Korean peninsula is recognized brown or red as it is flowing near the coast of the continent.

This image was taken by OCTS at a infrared band ranging from 10.3 to 11.4 microns in wave length. While the data was kept on the satellite, the amount of it had been reduced to one-tenth of the original. Then the lightened data was sent to the ground, received a portable receiver possible to be carried on a ship, and then processed by a personal computer.

While the images available this time are taken only at the infrared band, the coming routine operation of OCTS will provide with data at both the visible near-infrared bands and the thermal infrared bands which represent respectively the surface temperature of the sea and the distribution of concentration of plant plankton's pigments. Such data are expected to be used effectively in fishery. The OCTS data already obtained will be compared with ground truth data from ships, jointly by National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) and other entities like Japan*s Fisheries Agency, and will be used to optimize the image processing method.

The surface temperature of the sea is an important index for ocean observation. It provides significant information regarding the behavior of water including ocean currents, the formation of fisheries, and the inflow and diffusion of water from rivers and factories. Surveys by ships, however, take much time and the ships themselves may disturb the status of water which is the object of the surveys. The observation at infrared wavelength by OCTS is appropriate to broad range surveys of the surface temperature of the sea, because OCTS enables to:

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