India’s silent sentinels in space save million lives

[Chanakya's_Chant]

India’s silent sentinels in space save million lives​

CHENNAI: The imaging and communication satellites are proving to be worth their weight in gold, what with the sentinels in the sky helping the nation save millions of lives during natural disasters like cyclones. On this occasion, too, the IMD has benefitted fully from technology in dealing with Phailin.

Until the 1970s, cyclones along Andhra Pradesh and Orissa routinely claimed thousands of lives. Now, the casualties are several times lower, the exception being the 1999 Odisha "super cyclone" 05B which killed more than 15,000 people. Today, with 11 Indian remote sensing satellites in service, the National Remote Sensing Centre in Hyderabad is able to provide data that helps agencies forecast cyclones more than 72 hours in advance and evacuate people.

"In the 1960s and 1970s, cyclones on the Andhra Pradesh coast killed people by tens of thousands," says scientist P M Bhargava who served as the National Knowledge Commission vice-chairman. "Of late, many cyclones have hit the shores without causing a single casualty, thanks to our remote sensing satellites."

Depending on remote sensing data from the US, India had suffered delays and denials at crucial times. India launched its first experimental remote sensing satellite Bhaskara-1 on June 7, 1979, but disaster forecasting, live monitoring and proactive management took a long time to attain near-perfection. "Today, India's array of remote sensing satellites - one of the largest constellations in the world - with spatial resolutions ranging from less than a metre to 500 metres allows accurate forecast and preparedness," says Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) spokesperson Deviprasad Karnik. Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan, in an earlier interview with TOI, called it "a silent contribution."

In the aftermath of disasters, like the 2001 Gujarat earthquake and the 2004 tsunami, Indian satellites played a crucial role in mitigation. Risat-1 launched in April last year and Risat-2 which has been in orbit since April 2009 have the ability to look for impending cyclones even at night and through clouds. The synthetic aperture radar in the satellites enables applications in agriculture too, especially for paddy monitoring during kharif season. Saral, an Indio-French satellite launched on February 25, 2013, can study ocean circulation and sea surface elevation.

"Those who criticise the expenditure on space science don't realise its contribution to not just saving lives but alleviating poverty," says Bhargava, who founded the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad. "You can argue that the space department gets higher allocation, but it is well justified. After all, Indian space scientist makes satellites and rockets at a fraction of the cost of similar US projects."

If millions have been moved from the Odisha coast to safety over the last two days, part of the credit should go to India's satellites, the sentinels in space.

Indian remote sensing satellites in operation now:

Satellite Launch date

Saral February 25, 2013

Risat-1 April 26, 2012

Megha-Tropiques October 12, 2011

Resourcesat-2 April 20, 2011

Cartosat-2B July 12, 2010

Oceansat-2 September 23, 2009

Risat-2 April 20, 2009

Cartosat-2A April 28, 2008

Cartosat-2 January 10, 2007

Cartosat-1 May 05, 2005

Resourcesat-1 October 17, 2003

Source:- India’s silent sentinels in space save million lives - The Times of India

 

[AnnoyingOrange]

Give it some time.. soon we will have Chinese and Pakistanis ranting about Poverty and Toilets on this thread.

 

[gslv mk3]

Everyone who critisize India's spending on Space sector should read this,especialy our western neighbours.

Remote sensing capabilities..heck,next is Cartosat 3 with 0.25 m resolution.

 

[gslv mk3]

Development cost of gslv was 0.5 billion.

Development cost of gslv mk 3 was 4000 crore INR.Now how about that?A medium,lift launcher with LEO payload of 10 tonne (and growth potential to 15 tonne) at just 4000 crore?

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

#India's Space Programme is the most economical in the world having such distinctions in hand

ISRO’s last 40 years expenditure is about half of NASA’s single year budget. (Around $9 Billion since inception till this ongoing fiscal year)

ISRO’s budget is only 0.34 per cent of the central government expenditure at present and 0.08 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). There is so little to offer, but in turn ISRO has got more in return to offer back to the nation.

Would like to quote some of the visionaries of the Indian Space Programme who cleared the doubts arousing over relevance of space activities in a developing nation:-

Dr. Vikram Sarabhai

There are some who question the relevance of space activities in a developing nation. To us, there is no ambiguity of purpose. We do not have the fantasy of competing with the economically advanced nations in the exploration of the moon or the planets or manned space-flight. But we are convinced that if we are to play a meaningful role nationally, and in the community of nations, we must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society.

Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Many individuals with myopic vision questioned the relevance of space activities in a newly independent nation, which was finding it difficult to feed its population. Their vision was clear if Indians were to play meaningful role in the community of nations, they must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to their real-life problems. They had no intention of using it as a means of displaying our might

From the first sounding rocket launch from Thumba in 1963 to the upcoming Mangalyaan - ISRO had ultimately succeeded in its mission no matter how many hurdles were on its way may it be Missile Transfer Control Regime or the economic sanctions and so on......

#I wish DRDO's trajectory would have been the same as that of ISRO....