‘Geostationary Ocean Color Imager’

Strengthens its standing in both domestic and abroad in the development & application of geostationary ocean color satellite

Republic of Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute (KORDI) announced that it will start the full-operation and the related official data distribution service of GOCI(Geostationary Ocean Color Imager), one of the three main payloads in COMS(Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite) also known as ‘Chollian’, which was launched in June 27 last year, beginning April 20 after its 9-month-long test operation.

Considering that the development of geostationary earth observation satellite centered on meteorological satellite in the past, Republic of Korea’s successful development of the world’s first ocean color satellite in geostationary orbit, GOCI/COMS and the start of its full-time operation is expected to strengthen the nation’s status as the leader in the development and application of geostationary ocean color satellites.

The great significance of this achievement can be found from the fact that it took only two decades for Republic of Korea since taking her first steps toward space exploration to lead the way in the world’s ocean color observatioin initiatives using geostationary satellite.

The existing polar orbit ocean color sensors can only observe the surrounding ocean of the Korean peninsula once a day, but GOCI observes the surrounding ocean and the land of South Republic of Korea eight times a day in one-hour interval by continuously hovering over the Korean peninsula 24 hours a day. It is expected to contribute significantly in the nation’s effort to effectively forecast and respond to the changes in the ocean environment resulting from natural and/or artificial disasters such as earthquake, tsunami and oil spill accidents.