MUMBAI:
Indian Space Research Organization (Isro)'s Oscat radio scatterometer on board
its 960kg Oceansat-2 remote sensing satellite had tracked ocean surface winds
of Hurricane Sandy that wrought havoc in eastern US on Monday, a Nasa Jet
Propulsion Laboratory announcement has said.
NASA had sought Isro's help as its QuikSat
satellite stopped operating in November 2009. QuikSat resembles the Oscat radio
scatterometer. Officials said Isro's Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre
has designed and developed the scatterometer, an active microwave device, which
among other things is equipped with one-meter parabolic dish antenna. It has
been designed to provide global ocean coverage.
Isro chief spokesperson Dev Prasad Karnik said
Isro, NASA and US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (USNOAA) have
an agreement regarding sharing Oceansat-2's data. "The sharing of data of
Hurricane Sandy only reflects the growing collaboration between Isro, Nasa and
USNOAA," he told TOI.
The scatterometer's image of Hurricane Sandy
obtained at 9.30 am (IST) on Monday was transmitted to NASA and USNOAA and
shows it heading towards the eastern US coast.
The satellite was launched from four-stage
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle on September 23, 2009 and operates at an
altitude of 720km in the sun-synchronous orbit. Oceansat-2 is the Isro's sixth
remote sensing satellite.
No comments:
Post a Comment