Practical Applications of a Space Station (1984) / Chapter Skim
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OCEAN OPERATIONS
OCEAN OPERATIONS
Pages 41-59
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From page 41... ...
Some of the factors accounting for this new interest are the establishment of national economic zones extending 200 nautical miles from the shorelines of coastal nations, growth in size and number of oceangoing ships, movement of petroleum exploration into the offshore regions of as many as 50 nations (in addition to the 50 countries that had offshore oil wells in l979) , increasing importance of worldwide fishing, prospects for ocean-bed mining, concern about protecting the ocean from dumping of toxic wastes, the promise of power generation from ocean waves and thermal differentials, and the expansion of naval defense activities.
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From page 42... ...
The oceans support a multitude of physical, biological, and chemical processes, and constitute vital national and international resources. In considering the utility of satellite remote sensing to the oceanic community, two factors need to be taken into account: from the scientific viewpoint, major ocean basins behave as entities; from the political viewpoint, the developing body of international sea law will eventually have an important impact on various ocean activities.
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From page 43... ...
As restrictions are placed on fishing and research ship activity, it must be expected that needs for satellite-based navigation and communications services will increase, and remotely sensed data in the coastal regions will become more important. The Panel concludes that to be of significant value, observations from space must cover the major oceans and require spacecraft in polar or nearly polar orbit.
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From page 44... ...
NCAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) charters airplanes from private companies to observe the 200-mile economic zone, primarily to support the Coast Guard in the control of foreign and domestic fishing activities.
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From page 45... ...
Ocean operations and research need 24-hour global coverage, sea surface observations by several instruments, and the ability to obtain repeat coverage, at least once a day. The Panel is in agreement with the observations of the Space Science Board's Committee on Earth Sciences that "in the area of ocean dynamics, space techniques offer the only practical means to determine the surface boundary conditions for general circulation of the ocean" (Committee on Earth Sciences, l982)
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From page 46... ...
The areas discussed are protection and control of economic zones; coastal preservation; fisheries development; offshore oil and gas exploration, drilling, and production; mineral extraction; power generation; ocean pollution; sea ice monitoring; ocean research; and naval activities. Protection and Control of Economic Zones Today, among many nations there is acceptance of a functional economic zone extending 200 nautical miles offshore.
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From page 47... ...
In addition, wave height and shallow bathymetric measurements would further increase the use of remotely sensed data by those concerned with the protection of the coastal zone. Fisheries Development In commercial ocean fisheries, remotely sensed data is of principal use in operations concerned with stock harvesting and stock management.
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From page 48... ...
Thus, a near-polar orbit would be necessary to benefit fishing activities. Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration, Drilling, and Production Today there are approximately 25,000 petroleum wells in offshore areas of the United States producing about l2 percent of U.S.
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From page 49... ...
. To support offshore power generation, as well as power stations built near coastlines, ocean data are needed for site selection, assessment of pollutant transport, environmental protection, design of thermal and wave action systems, and monitoring of physical, chemical, and biological conditions.
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From page 50... ...
The need for development of these techniques is suggested in the section "Future Needs." However, only satellites can fill the need for monitoring the oceans on a synoptic scale. Sea Ice Monitoring The earth is a heat engine; energy from the sun is received in the tropics and lost from the polar regions.
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From page 51... ...
However, chemists and geologists have been able to make little use of remotely sensed data, because few chemical factors and almost no geological phenomena are observable by remote sensing. The Panel believes that this situation is not likely to change.
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From page 52... ...
The system will use data from several satellites, merge the data in processing operations, and disseminate the data in processed form. REQUIREMENTS FOR SPACECRAFT FOR OCEANIC REMOTE SENSING This section identifies technological requirements for a space station or space platform with oceanic remote sensing capability.
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From page 53... ...
The Panel concludes that the Shuttle will be useful both as a delivery system for satellites with oceanic remote sensing capability and as an orbiting test bed, carrying experimental ocean-data-gathering instruments. Free-Flying Observatories with Space Station Support Orbit requirements and other limitations may make it impractical to use a space station or space platform to carry ocean-monitoring instruments.
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From page 54... ...
Three key factors -- instruments, data handling, and orbit selection -- will determine whether a space station or platform can efficiently provide ocean remote sensing data. A discussion of these factors follows.
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From page 55... ...
Ocean color data, needed by fisheries and pollution specialists, can be obtained with instruments like the Coastal Zone Color Scanner carried on Nimbus 7. Data Handling If a full complement of ocean sensors is operated on a full-time duty cycle, one can foresee a requirement to transmit up to one gigabit (one billion bits)
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From page 56... ...
Advances in either of these categories would greatly increase the usefulness of remotely sensed data to the ocean community. With regard to kinds of data, the present and foreseeable capability consists of direct measurement of physical quantities (e.g., surface water temperature, visual color, roughness patterns, wave height, and topography)
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From page 57... ...
This requires high-speed communication between remote sensing satellites, a space station, or a space platform and research and commercial users. Processed data should be made readily available to commercial and government centers charged with satisfying end-user needs for geophysical units and for analysis and forecast products.
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From page 58... ...
Data from remote sensing instruments must be continuously validated by measurements made at the earth's surface from ships, buoys, and aircraft. The data from ships, aircraft, and buoys should be integrated with remotely sensed data from space in a single ocean-data system.
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From page 59... ...
l982a. Scientific Opportunities Using Satellite Surface Wind Stress Measurements over the Ocean.
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