China plans to launch a third ocean survey satellite in 2010 to upgrade its capacity for maritime weather forecasting and disaster relief, according to a report in the Science and Technology Daily on Wednesday.

The newspaper is an official publication of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The satellite, Haiyang-2A, an ocean dynamic environmental satellite, will be used to monitor ocean wind fields, sea levels and temperatures, Jiang Xingwei, an official with the National Marine Environment Forecast Center, was quoted as saying.

China plans to have a system consisting of ocean color remote sensing satellites, ocean dynamic environment satellites and ocean surveillance satellites.

The color remote sensing satellites (Haiyang-1 series) use infrared remote sensing technology to monitor ocean pollution and topography in shallow waters.

The dynamic environment satellites (Haiyang-2 series) use microwave remote sensing technology to monitor ocean wind fields and ocean surface temperatures.

The ocean surveillance satellites (Haiyang-3 series) will have the combined features of the previous two series.

China started to develop ocean dynamic environment satellite in 2007, the newspaper said.

China launched its first ocean survey satellite, Haiyang-1A, in May 2002. In April 2007, the second ocean survey satellite, Haiyang-1B, was launched. Both were ocean color remote sensing satellites.

(Xinhua News Agency February 18, 2009)