INSAT-3D to enhance the weather observation

July 31, 2013

India’s newest satellite INSAT-3D which was put in orbit on a European rocket is expected to increase the weather observation and forecasting, disaster warning systems and also enhance land and sea surface monitoring over the sub-continent and the Indian Ocean region.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has planned to switch on the meteorology instruments on the satellite and test them extensively before starting the operations. The satellite will then have a period matching the Earth’s 24-hour rotation and will be geosynchronous over the sub-continent. Prior to it the scientists will start the first of four ‘orbit manoeuvres’ from the Master Control Facility at Hassan, Karnataka. They will push the spacecraft’s initial elliptical orbit into a circular one that will be nearly 36,000 km above the ground at 82 degrees East longitude.

About INSAT-3D:

ISRO spent around Rs. 200 crore to build the satellite and around Rs. 350 crore on its launch and insurance costs.
The metsat supplements the decade-old and fading Kalpana-1 and INSAT-3A with four sophisticated payloads.
The six-channel imager takes weather pictures of the Earth with better resolution.
The 19-channel sounder gives layered vertical profiles of temperature, humidity and integrated ozone.
The data relay transponder picks and relays met, moisture and sea related information from automatic data collection platforms placed at remote uninhabited locations on to a processing centre for generating accurate forecasts.
SAR device: The Search And Rescue device picks up and relays distress alert signals from users on sea, land and air to an ISRO centre in Bangalore and enables speedy detection and rescue of such people.