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China to Develop Sea Satellites
China will put its first oceanic satellite into orbit next year after a series of weather and resources satellites have been launched, said an official in the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) in Beijing Wednesday.
"The serial oceanic satellites will become China's major civil satellites together with the Fengyun and Ziyuan series," Sun Zhihui, vice director of the administration, said during a working conference of the SOA.
The administration will actively take part in China's space plan and will push forward sea satellite projects to realize three dimensional monitoring in the ocean, Sun said.
The research and development of the oceanic satellite and the establishment of ground stations are well under way, said Sun.
Chen Mingjian from the science and technology department of the SOA told Xinhua that China is planning to send one sea satellite every two years in the coming decade to monitor marine environment and disasters.
By observing optical features of the ocean's waters, the sea satellite will be used to survey primary productivity of oceans, offshore sands and red tides.
Development of marine high-tech was included in China's high-tech plan about five years ago. Since then, rapid progress has been made in the fields of marine monitoring, biotechnology, sea bed detection and satellite remote sensing technologies.
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