IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - December 2014 - 52

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SOUNDER: The Sounder Payload
provides a vertical profile of temperature and humidity using its 18 narrowband IR and 1 visible channel. The IR
Spectral channels range from 3.74 nm
in Shortwave Infrared to 14.7 nm in
Long wave Infrared region with 10 km
spatial resolution. These channels are
selected for CO2, Ozone, Water Vapor
and N2O measurements. The visible
channel provides the backdrop. Apart
from the GOES system, this is the only
other such GEO Sounder. GOES operates over the continental US, while the
INSAT-3D Sounder operates over the
Indian ocean region.

V. WAY FORWARD
Inspired by the vision of the founder of
ISRO, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, ISRO's EO
programme continues to enhance its sen90N
sor and systems with enhancements to
spectral range, resolution, temporal cov60N
erage, and products. ISRO emphasizes,
more importantly, institutional utiliza30N
tion of these data for science and applications so that the myriad resource management and hazard-related issues in India
EQ
are addressed, including flood mapping,
disaster management, crop estimation,
30S
forest assessment, energy harvesting,
mining, water run-off and glacier stud60S
ies. Future thrust areas are hyperspectral imaging, sub-metre imaging, GEO
90S
based multispectral imaging, radiometry,
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atmospheric sounding, scatterometry,
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GNSS based reflectometry/refractometry,
atmospheric sounding and SAR technology with multifrequency/polarimetric/
interferometric capability. In the near
FiguRe 9. SARAL Product: Global Sea Level Anomaly in cm (Top) and Significant Wave Height
future, an impressive array of sensors is
in m (Bottom).
lined up. Some of them are:
INSAT-3D, the next generation exclusively meteorological
◗ GISAT in 2017 time frame: Multispectral Geo imager
satellite, carries two prime payloads: a six channel IMAGER
with 50 m resolution
and a nineteen channel SOUNDER.
◗ Cartosat-3 in 2018: High resolution multispectral imaging
IMAGER: The Imager is an enhanced version of the
◗ Scatsat in 2015: Replacement of the Ku-band scatteromfive VHRR payloads already flown, two of them cureter on Oceansat-2
rently operational onboard INSAT 3A and Kalpana-1. The
◗ Oceansat-3 in 2017: With 13 band OCM, TIR imager, Kuenhancements are in terms of spectral, spatial and temband Scatterometer and mmWave Temperature Sounder
poral resolutions. The Imager measures incoming radia◗ RISAT-3 in 2019: With Polarimetric versatile L-band
tion from Earth in these six spectral bands: Visible (0.55
SAR (being planned)
to 0.75 nm), SWIR (1.55 to 1.68 nm), MIR (3.8 to 4.0 nm),
◗ RISAT-1A in 2018: Repeat of RISAT-1 (being planned)
Water Vapor (6.5 to 7.1 nm), Thermal IR1 (10.3 to 11.3 nm )
◗ NASA ISRO SAR (NISAR) in 2020: L- and S-band, wide
& Thermal IR2 (11.5 to 12.5 nm). The spatial resolutions
swath, high resolution polarimetric and interferometric
are 1 km in visible and SWIR, 4 km in MWIR, 8 km in Water
SAR for periodic observation of total land surface and
Vapor and 4 km in Thermal IR.
cryosphere of Earth.
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ieee Geoscience and remote sensing magazine

december 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - December 2014