Indian Remote Sensing satellites are a series of Earth Observation satellites, built, launched
and maintained by Indian Space Research Organisation. The IRS series provides many remote sensing
services to India.
IRS System Following the successful demonstration flights
of Bhaskhar and Bhaskara-2 satellites launched in 1979 and 1981, respectively, India began
to develop the indigenous Indian Remote Sensing satellite program to support the national
economy in the areas of agriculture, water resources, forestry and ecology, geology,
water sheds, marine fisheries and coastal management.
Towards this end, India established the National Natural Resources Management System for which
the Department of Space is the nodal agency, providing operational remote sensing data
services. Data from the IRS satellites is received and disseminated by several countries
all over the world. With the advent of high-resolution satellites new applications in the areas of
urban sprawl, infrastructure planning and other large scale applications for mapping
have been initiated. The IRS system is the largest constellation
of remote sensing satellites for civilian use in operation today in the world, with
12 operational satellites. All these are placed in polar sun-synchronous orbit and provide
data in a variety of spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions. Indian Remote Sensing
Programme completed its 25 years of successful operations on March 17, 2013.
IRS data applications Data from Indian Remote Sensing satellites
are used for various applications of resources survey and management under the National Natural
Resources Management System. Following is the list of those applications:
Space Based Inputs for Decentralized Planning National Urban Information System
ISRO Disaster Management Support Programme Biodiversity Characterizations at landscape
level- http:bis.iirs.gov.in Preharvest crop area and production estimation
of major crops. Drought monitoring and assessment based on
vegetation condition. Flood risk zone mapping and flood damage assessment.
Hydro-geomorphological maps for locating underground water resources for drilling well.
Irrigation command area status monitoring Snow-melt run-off estimates for planning water
use in down stream projects Land use and land cover mapping
Urban planning Forest survey
Wetland mapping Environmental impact analysis
Mineral Prospecting Coastal studies
Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development for generating locale-specific prescriptions
for integrated land and water resources development in 174 districts.
IRS launch log The initial versions are composed of the 1.
The later versions are named based on their area of application including OceanSat, CartoSat,
ResourceSat. Some of the satellites have alternate designations based on the launch number and
vehicle. IRS Data Availability
Data from IRS are available to its users through NRSC Data Centre and also through Bhuvan Geoportal
of ISRO. NRSC data center provide data through its purchase process while Bhuvan Geoportal
provides data in free and open domain. Capacity Building for IRS and Other Remote
Sensing Data The capacity building programme of ISRO for
IRS and other remote sensing applications is through Indian Institute of Remote Sensing
Dehradun and Center of Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific(UN affiliated)
Center located at Dehradun of Uttrakhad State in India.
Future IRS launches Following are the remote sensing satellites
planned by ISRO to be launched next strengthening the fleet of IRS satellites and widening their
applications: RESOURCESAT-3: A follow on to Resourcesat-2,
it will carry more advanced LISS-III-WS Sensor having similar swath and revisit capability
as Advanced Wide Field Sensor, thus overcoming any spatial resolution limitation of AWiFS.
Satellite would also carry Atmospheric Correction Sensor for quantitative interpretation and
geophysical parameter retrieval. It slated to be launched during 2011-12.
CARTOSAT-3: A continuation of Cartosat series, it will have a resolution 30 cm and 6 km
swath suitable for cadastre and infrastructure mapping and analysis. It would also enhance
disaster monitoring and damage assessment. It is slated to be launched during 2011-12.
OCEANSAT-3: Oceasat-3 would carry Thermal IR Sensor, 12 channel Ocean Color Monitor,
Scatterometer and Passive Microwave Radiometer. IR Sensor and Ocean Color Monitor would be
used in the analysis for operational Potential Fishing Zones. Satellite is mainly for Ocean
biology and sea state applications. It is slated to the launched aboard PSLV in 2012-13.
Satellite data acquisition and processing The National Remote Sensing Centre at Hyderabad
is the nodal agency for reception, archival, processing and dissemination of remote sensing
data in the country. NRSC acquires and processes data from all Indian remote sensing satellites
like Cartosat-1, Cartosat-2, Resourcesat-1, IRS-1D, Oceansat-1 and Technology Experiment
Satellite as well as foreign satellites like Terra, NOAA and ERS.
See also List of Indian satellites
References ^ FAS website on IRS
^ "Indian Remote Sensing Satellite Series - A SAGA OF 25 YEARS". Indian Space Research
Organisation. p. 9. Retrieved March 13, 2013. ^ IRS Satellites in ISRO annual report of
year 2006-07 ^ a b c d Eleventh Five Year Plan For Indian
Space Programme External links
CartoSat 2 images Official ISRO website
FAS article on IRS system Bharat-Rakshak article on IRS system