Moderate-resolution Ocean Color and Temperature Imager on Chinese Tian-Gong II space lab

The system design, performance and first evaluation result from in-orbit running test of a push-broom Moderate-resolution Ocean Color and Temperature Imager (MOCTI) on Chinese Tian-Gong Π space lab, which was launched on Sept. 15, 2016, is introduced. With spatial resolution of 100m in visible light and near infrared wavelength (swath is around 300Km), the MOCTI is the highest spatial resolution ocean color remote sensor among the on-orbit operational ocean color sensors in the world (compared to MODIS, VIIRS of the US, OLCI of ESA, GOCI of South Korea). Furthermore, the MOCTI covers VIS, NIR, SWIR and TIR bands and has distinguished performance in ocean color detection. The in-orbit tests revealed that the remote sensor products retrieved by MOCTI have good consistency and finer special resolution compared with the products from other similar ocean color satellite sensors.