Monday 30 April 2012

RISAT - 1, It can spy also do other wonders


Courtesy : The Hindu

optical Satellite - It works like a ordinary camera. They wont work in night. It's view is obstructed by clouds. Radar Satellite -  Send radio waves and pick up the signals that bounce back.

Real time flood mapping is done using Canada's RADARSAT. Crop monitoring helps to have accurate estimate of acreage and yield of agriculture lands. It is one of the main uses of Remote Sensing.

Optical Satellite can be used for crop monitoring. In India small field size and different crops grown in same area makes optical satellite results unreliable. Even more soil, moisture plant size play a vital role in the outcome of optical satellite data. RADARSAT satellite's data is used for rice and jute crop inventory in India. But cost of data is very high.With India's own Radar Satellite RISAT-1 cost of data will come down heavily.

Radar Satellite can be used in

  • Glacier Studies
  • Forestry
  • Oil Spill
  • Wind and water current information (Ocenography)
  • Military use - spying 

RISAT orbital height 536 km, width 400km (It is technically called as Swathe)

  • MRS - Medium Resolution 25m per pixel
  • CRS - Course Resolution 50m per pixel
  • FRS - Fine Resolution 3m to 12m 
  • Spotlight mode - 1m resolution
Source: It can spy and also do a hundred humdrum things, OP-ED, p13, The Hindu 26th April 2012