Friday, 9 November 2012

ISRO NEWS: ISRO's centre in Ahmedabad helped track Hurricane Sandy



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.

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