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New satellite to boost India’s remote sensing ability |
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The remote sensing ability of the country will get a boost with the launch of the SARAL satellite in December, K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said here on Monday.
He was speaking after inaugurating the 11th biennial conference of the Pan Ocean Remote Sensing Conference Association (PORSEC 2012).
The SARAL-Altika, a combined technology mission by ISRO and the French Space Agency (CLS), will map the variability of the sea level. The satellite will be carrying the ARGOS system for CLS and that will help in the transmission of data from Argo floats, Dr. Radhakrishnan said.
The satellite will provide data to support operational research in marine meteorology and sea state forecast as well as seasonal forecast. While SARAL will be launched from Sriharikota, six other satellites will be launched from other countries. INSAT-ID will be launched next year, he said.
ISRO has many satellites in orbit, such as Oceansat-1 and -2, Megha-Tropiques, RISAT and INSATs, which are supporting ocean, weather and climate applications, he added.
The tsunami-warning system that the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) developed for the country is now called the Indian Ocean observation system that caters for the entire region, Dr. Radhakrishnan said.
In his address, Shailesh Nayak, Secretary, Union Ministry of Earth Sciences, said understanding the oceans was vital in understanding issues related to climate change. The studies on ocean should be taken up with global and regional perspectives. As part of the capacity-building effort, an international training centre for operational oceanography would be set up at INCOIS, he said.
The INCOIS, under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences, is hosting PORSEC 2012, which is being attended by nearly 500 delegates from 25 countries.
The theme for this conference is “Ocean remote sensing for the wellbeing of all” and will feature 25 technical sessions and an exhibition showcasing the new technologies in ocean science and ocean remote sensing.
The Union Ministry of Earth Science, ISRO, the Department of Science and Technology, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research are the major sponsors.
The National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai; National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Goa; Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune; National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad; Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, Centre for Marine Living Resources, National Institute of Oceanography (NIO-Kochi); Naval Physical Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL); Central Institute of Fisheries Technology; Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute; Cochin University of Science and Technology, NODPAC and Nansen Environmental Research Centre India, Kochi; and Centre for Earth Science Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, are supporting the event. The conference will end on November 9.
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