This volume contains the proceedings from the COSPAR Colloquium on "Space Remote Sensing of Subtropical Oceans" which took place between 12 and 16 September, 1996, at the Institute of Oceanography of the National Taiwan University. Included are contributions addressing the issue, from scientific points of views, of why the first scientific satellite of Taiwan, ROCSAT-1, should be equipped with the Ocean Colour Imager (OCI) for oceanographic investigations.