Context:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch an Earth Observation Satellite in August 2021 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, at Sriharikota.
Relevance:
Prelims, GS-III: Science and Technology (Space Technology)
Dimensions of the Article:
- Earth Observation Satellites
- ISRO and EOS
- About the EOS-3 set to be launched in 2021
Earth Observation Satellites
- An Earth Observation Satellite or Earth Remote Sensing Satellite is a satellite used or designed for Earth Observance (EO) from orbit, including spy satellites and similar ones intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, meteorology, cartography and others.
- The most common type are Earth imaging satellites, that take satellite images, analogous to aerial photographs; some EOS satellites may perform remote sensing without forming pictures, such as in GNSS radio occultation.
- The first occurrence of satellite remote sensing can be dated to the launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, by the Soviet Union in 1957.
ISRO and EOS
- Starting with IRS-1A in 1988, ISRO has launched many operational remote sensing satellites.
- Currently 13 operational satellites are in Sun-synchronous orbit – RESOURCESAT-1, 2, 2A CARTOSAT-1, 2, 2A, 2B, RISAT-1 and 2, OCEANSAT-2, Megha-Tropiques, SARAL and SCATSAT-1, and *four* in Geostationary orbit- INSAT-3D, Kalpana & INSAT 3A, INSAT -3DR.
- The data from these satellites are used for several applications covering agriculture, water resources, urban planning, rural development, mineral prospecting, environment, forestry, ocean resources and disaster management.
About the EOS-3 set to be launched in 2021
- The satellite, EOS-03, will be carried on board the 14th flight of the GSLV, the GSLV-F10, and will place the satellite in a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit.
- The satellite will reach the final geostationary orbit using its onboard propulsion system.
- The EOS-03 is a state-of-the-art agile satellite that would enable real-time monitoring of natural disasters such as floods and cyclones, monitoring of water bodies, crops, vegetation condition, forest cover changes among others.
- This will only be the second launch for ISRO in 2021 as work has been hit by the COVID-19 restrictions.
-Source: The Hindu
