Image Resolutions

UNIT 6 MAJOR SPACE PROGRAMMES

Structure
6.1 Introduction
Objectives
6.2 Space Programmes
6.3 Indian Space Programme
Indian Remote Sensing Satellite Series
Radar Imaging Satellite Series
Indian National Satellite Series
6.4 Global Space Programmes
Landsat
SPOT
RADARSAT
European Remote Sensing Satellites
Japanese Earth Resource Satellites
6.5 Commercial Remote Sensing Satellites
QuickBird
IKONOS
OrbView
6.6 Summary
6.7 Unit End Questions
6.8 References
6.9 Further/Suggested Reading
6.10 Answers

6.1 INTRODUCTION
You have studied in Units 4 and 5 that each remote sensing satellite is
equipped with a certain type of sensors. From 1957, when the Sputnik satellite
was launched by Russia, to the present a number of satellites have been
launched by many countries. These satellites, launched under different space
programmes, carried with them sensors of different characteristics to gather
relevant data about the Earth. The data obtained by satellites have become
increasingly important for predicting weather, studying hazards, monitoring
global change and managing Earth resources. In this unit, you will be
introduced to important space programmes of India and other countries and
also the characteristics of the sensors and their utilities.

Objectives
After studying this unit, you should be able to:
• outline the initiatives taken by various countries for space exploration;
• discuss the achievements of Indian space programme; and
• explain the importance of various types of satellites launched by different
countries.
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Sensors and Space
Programmes 6.2 SPACE PROGRAMMES
A space programme commonly includes space missions and their planning. A
space mission is the journey of the space by a manned or unmanned vehicle
(spacecraft/satellite), aiming to explore solar system and gather scientific data.
A space mission programme includes planning, designing and operation of a
specific space mission. The planning of a space mission is a complex and
multi-disciplinary task which includes various aspects of the mission from its
definition to the end of mission’s life. According to objectives of the space
mission, they can be categorised into the following:
• applications
• technology experiment, and
• science and exploration
The first step into space was taken after World War II, when Russia (USSR)
successfully launched first artificial satellite, Sputnik-1, into the space in
October, 1957. This marked the beginning of remote sensing era as it provided
first view of Earth’s surface from the space. Subsequently, in the same year
United States of America took leap into space age by launching its first satellite,
Explorer-1. On 1st October, 1958, United States of America established National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for space exploration. But the
space age really began with the launch of Vostok-1 on 12th April 1961 by Russia.
The space shuttle took Yuri Gagarin (a Russian cosmonaut) into space. Apart
from USSR and USA, many other countries of the world including India have
taken leap into the space exploration as shown in Table 6.1.
Table 6.1: Space agencies of the world
S.No Country Agency Website
1. Australia Australian Space Research Institute (ASRI) www.asri.org.au
2. Belgium Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BISA) www.aeronomie.be
3. Brazil Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) www.cbers.inpe.br
4. Canada Canadian Space Agency (CSA) www.asc-csa.gc.ca
5. China China National Space Administration (CNSA) www.cnsa.gov.cn
6. Europe European Space Agency (ESA) www.esa.int
7. France French Space Agency (CNES) www.cnes.fr
8. Germany German Aerospace Center (DLR) www.dlr.de
9. India Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) www.isro.org
10. Iran Iranian Space Agency (ISA) www.isa.ir
11. Italy Italian Space Agency (ASI) www.asi.it
12. Japan Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) www.jaxa.jp
13. Netherlands Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON) www.sron.nl
14. Russia Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA) www.federalspace.ru
15. South Korea Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) www.kari.kr
16. Spain Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial (INTA ) www.inta.es
17. Sweden Swedish National Space Board (SNSB) www.snsb.se
18. Ukraine National Space Agency of Ukraine (NSAU) www.nkau.gov.ua
19. United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration www.nasa.gov
(NASA)
20. United UK Space Agency (UKSA) www.bis.gov.uk
46 Kingdom
 Major Space Programmes
6.3 INDIAN SPACE PROGRAMME
Indian space programme started way back in 1920s, when a scientist, S.K. Mitra
conducted a series of experiments to sound the atmosphere using ground based
radio techniques in Kolkata. From 1950, Government of India (GOI) started to
invest in space science programmes. From 1950 to 1962, Department of Atomic
Energy provided funds for research in space sciences. For the development and
formulation of Indian space programmes, GOI established the Indian National
Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) in 1962 under the leadership of
visionary Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai is considered as father of
Indian space programme (Fig. 6.1). In 1963, INCOSPAR took decision to setup
Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) at Thumba,
Thiruvananthapuram, South India. The setting up of TERLS marked beginning of
the Indian space age. Later on, in June 1972, GOI established the Space
Commission and Department of Space (DOS) for promoting unified development
and application of space science and technology at national level. In the meantime,
during 1969, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai re-designated INCOSPAR as the Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO), Bangalore and it was brought under DOS in
September, 1972. ISRO set up as a research and development wing of DOS which
is responsible for the execution of India’s national space programme.

The space programme of India was pioneered with a vision to use space Fig. 6.1: Dr. Vikram
Sarabhai – father of
technology for national development. The programme is application driven Indian space programme
with due emphasis on policy of self-reliance. The primary objective of the
Indian space programme is to establish operational space services in a self-
reliant manner in thrust areas of satellite communication, satellite based
resource survey/management and meteorological applications. The indigenous
development of satellites, launch vehicles and associated ground segment for
providing these services is integral part of these programmes.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is the nodal body for space
research under the control of GOI. It is one of the leading space research
organisations in the world. It was constituted in its modern form in 1969 with
an objective to develop space technology and its application to various tasks
of the nation. Indian space programmes are executed through ISRO with four
grant-in-aid institutions namely - National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC),
Hyderabad; Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad; National
Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL), Tirupati and North-Eastern Space
Applications Centre (NE-SAC), Umiam, Meghalaya.

Indian space programme has made impressive stride with its inception in the
late 1950s. But during the initial stages, India relied heavily on international
assistance and co-operation to develop its space programme. Later India
entered in the space age with launching of the first Indian scientific low orbit
satellite Aryabhatta in April 1975 with the help of Cosmos-3M launch vehicle
of Soviet Union. Aryabhatta was followed by launching of two Indian
satellites for remote sensing namely Bhaskara-1 in 1979 and Bhaskara-2 in
1981. India’s first three-axes stabilised geostationary tele-communications
satellite APPLE (Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment) was successfully
launched in June 1981 by the European Ariane launch vehicle. The other
major breakthrough in the Indian space programme includes launch of SITE
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Sensors and Space (Satellite Instructional Television Experiment) which was an experimental satellite
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communications project of India launched jointly by NASA and ISRO in 1975. The
project made available Special Instructional and Educational Television Programme
directly to rural India. STEP (Satellite Telecommunications Experiments Project)
was carried out using the Franco-German satellite Symphonie in 1977 for
telecommunication experiments.

ISRO’s Rohini satellite (RS-1) was launched with its own launch vehicle in 1979.
This made India the seventh nation in the globe to achieve the capability to launch a
satellite. Indian satellite launch vehicle (SLV-3) was used to launch Rohini Satellites
(RS-1) and (RS-D1) in 1979 and 1981, respectively.

Let us now discuss about the two major series of satellite systems established by
ISRO.
• Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS) Series - this series has been
developed for resources monitoring and management.
• Indian National Satellite (INSAT) Series - this series provide services
for tele-communications, TV broadcasting and meteorology services
including disaster warning support.

IRS series of satellites are in the polar orbit whereas satellites of INSAT series
are in geostationary orbit. ISRO has developed two satellite launch vehicles,
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geostationary Satellite Launch
Vehicle (GSLV) to place IRS and INSAT satellites in the required orbits,
respectively. Apart from IRS and INSAT series, ISRO also launched
CARTOSATs and radar imaging satellites (RISATs).

6.3.1 Indian Remote Sensing Satellite Series

After successful launching of Bhaskara-1 and 2 satellites in space during 1979
It is important to note that and 1981, respectively, ISRO has started developing indigenous Indian remote
besides IRS and INSAT sensing satellites series. This is named as Indian Remote Sensing Satellites
series of satellites, India
has also made stride
(IRS) series. It is a series of Earth observation satellites that have been built,
toward space exploration launched and maintained by ISRO. IRS system has the largest constellation of
by launching operational remote sensing satellites, which are providing continuity of
Chandrayaan-1 in 2008. services both at national and international level from 1988 onwards. IRS
system collects data from the Earth’s surface in several spectral bands but
visible and near infrared are common with a variety of spatial resolutions
starting from 360 m to 2.5 m. Data received from IRS series is disseminated to
several countries across the globe.
The primary components of IRS mission are:
• to develop a three-axes stabilised polar sun-synchronous satellite with
multispectral (pushbroom cameras) sensors for acquiring imagery for
Earth resource applications,
• to establish ground based system for reception, recording and processing
of multispectral data, and
• to use IRS data along with information obtained from other sources for
surveying and managing of resources.
India has successfully launched 18 remote sensing satellites under IRS mission since
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India has successfully launched 18 remote sensing satellites under IRS mission Major Space Programmes
since 1988 (Table 6.2). The first Indian remote sensing satellite, IRS-1A was
launched into near circular orbit in 1988 (Fig. 6.2) followed by the launching
of second identical satellite, IRS-1B, in 1991. Both of them were placed at an
altitude of 904 km in a sun-synchronous near polar orbit at an inclination of
99° and were launched from the Soviet Cosmodrome, Baikonure. IRS-1A and
IRS-2B had two types of cameras known as Linear Self Scanning Sensors
(LISS-I and LISS-II) operated in the pushbroom scanning mode using linear
charged coupled devices (CCDs) arrays. Both had a repeat cycle (temporal
resolution) of 22 days. IRS-1A collected data with a 72 m spatial resolution Fig. 6.2: IRS-1A satellite
(source: www.isro.org)
with a ground swath of 148 km, while IRS-1B system had a 36 m spatial
resolution and 74 km ground swath. Both sensors acquired multispectral
imagery in blue, green, red, and near infrared spectral regions.

Table 6.2: List of remote sensing satellites launched by India (after

overview of Indian space sector, 2010)
S.No Name of satellite Date of launch Launch vehicle Mission status
th
1 IRS-1A 17 March, 1988 Vostok, USSR Completed
2. IRS-1B 29th August, 1991 Vostok, USSR Completed
th
3. IRS-P1 20 September, 1993 PSLV-D1 Crashed, due to
launch failure of
PSLV
4. IRS-P2 15th October, 1994 PSLV-D2 Completed
th
5. IRS-1C 28 December, 1995 Molniya, Russia Completed
6. IRS-P3 21st March, 1996 PSLV-D3 Completed
th
7. IRS-1D 29 September, 1997 PSLV-C1 Completed
8. IRS-P4 27th May, 1999 PSLV-C2 Completed
(Oceansat-1)
9. Technology 22nd October, 2001 PSLV-C3 In service
Experiment
Satellite (TES)
10. IRS-P6 17th October, 2003 PSLV-C5 In service
(Resourcesat-1)
11. Cartosat-1 5th May, 2005 PSLV-C6 In service
(IRS-P5)
12. Cartosat-2 10th January, 2007 PSLV-C7 In service
(IRS-P7)
13. Cartosat-2A 28th April, 2008 PSLV-C9 In service
14. IMS-1 28th April, 2008 PSLV-C9 In service
th
15. RISAT-2 20 April, 2009 PSLV-CA Completed
16. Oceansat-2 23rd September, 2009 PSLV-C14 In service
th
17. Cartosat-2B 12 July, 2010 PSLV-C15 In service
18. Resourcesat-2 20th April, 2011 PSLV-C16 In service

The launch of IRS-P1 in 1993 was not successful because of the failure of
indigenously developed Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-D1) in the last
stage of launching operation; as a result, satellite and rocket plunged into sea.
Subsequently, in October 1994, another satellite IRS-P2 was successfully 49
Sensors and Space launched by indigenously built PSLV-D2. It was placed in a polar sun-
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synchronous orbit at an altitude of about 817 km. IRS-P2 had only LISS-II
camera, whose specifications were much similar to that of satellite IRS -1A/
1B with small modifications in the arrangements of CCDs. IRS-P2 had revisit
cycle of 24 days, combined ground swath 131 km with spatial resolution of 32
m across track and 37 m along track. Specifications of IRS sensor system are
given in Table 6.3.

Table 6.3: Sensor specifications of IRS

Sensor Specifications
type Band Spectral resolution (μm) Spatial resolution (m)
LISS-I 1 0.45-0.52 (blue) 73
2 0.52-0.59 (green) 73
3 0.62-0.68 (red) 73
4 0.77-0.86 NIR (Near-infrared) 73
LISS-II 1 0.45-0.52 (blue) 36
2 0.52-0.59 (green) 36
3 0.62-0.68 (red) 36
4 0.77-0.86 NIR (Near-infrared) 36
LISS-III 1 0.52 - 0.59 (green) 24
2 0.62 - 0.68 (red) 24
3 0.77-0.86 NIR (Near-infrared) 24
4 1.55-1.70 (mid-IR) 24
LISS-IV 1 0.52 - 0.59 (green) 6
2 0.62 - 0.68 (red) 6
3 0.77 - 0.86 NIR (Near-infrared) 6
4 1.55 - 1.70 (mid-IR) 6
pan 0.62-0.68 (red) 6
WiFS 1 0.62-0.68 (red) 188
2 0.77-0.86 NIR (Near-infrared) 188
AWiFS 1 0.0.52-0.59 (green) 60
2 0.62-0.68 (red) 60
3 0.77-0.86 NIR (Near-infrared) 60
4 1.55-1.70 (mid-IR) 60

The second generation remote sensing satellites IRS-1C (Fig. 6.3) and IRS-1D
were successfully launched into polar orbit in December, 1995 and September,
1997, respectively. IRS-1C was launched by a Russian launch vehicle,
Fig. 6.3: IRS-1C satellite Molniya and IRS-1D by an indigenous built PSLV-C1. Both satellites are
(source: www.isro.org) featured by improved spatial resolution, extended spectral bands, stereo
viewing, wide swath and fast revisit capability. The satellites contain three
sensors namely - Panchromatic Camera (PAN), LISS-III and Wide Field
Sensor (WiFS) for collecting panchromatic and multispectral image data at
varying resolutions. IRS-1C/1D missions have been continuation of IRS-1A/
1B with improved spatial resolution. IRS-1C and 1D have slightly different
50
orbits as a result they do not have the same reference system. IRS-1C operates
in a circular, sun-synchronous, near polar orbit with an inclination of 98.69° at Major Space Programmes
an altitude of 817 km. This satellite takes 101.35 minutes to complete one
revolution around the Earth and completes about 14 orbits per day. The entire
Earth is covered by 341 orbits during a 24 day cycle. IRS-1D launched in
September, 1997, entered in a wrong elliptical orbit due to problem associated
with launching vehicle (PSLV-C1). But satellite and quality of data produced
by it appears to be good.

Satellite IRS-P3 was launched successfully in March 1996 from Sriharikota,

South India by third indigenously built PSLV-D3 launch vehicle (Fig. 6.4). Fig. 6.4: IRS-P3 satellite
IRS-P3 was a follow-up project of IRS-P2. In addition to WiFS similar to the (source: www.isro.org)
IRS-1D, with an additional Short Wave Infrared Band (SWIR); IRS-P3 also
had a Modular Opto-electronic Scanner (MOS) and an X-ray astronomy
payload. MOS was dedicated for remote sensing of ocean colour and the study
of atmosphere. This mission completed in January 2006.

Oceansat
IRS-P4 (Oceansat-1) satellite was launched in May, 1999 from Sriharikota by
PSLV-C2 flight. It is placed at an altitude of 720 km with an inclination of
98.28° in a polar sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite has two sensor payloads
namely an Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM) and Multi-frequency Scanning
Microwave Radiometer (MSMR). Since it represents the first satellite
primarily devoted to oceanographic applications, it is commonly known
worldwide as Oceansat-1. Technical characteristics of OCM are given in
Table 6.4.

Table 6.4: Specifications and features of OCM

Parameters Specifications
IGFOV at nominal altitude (m) 360 x 250
Swath (km) 1420
Spectral bands 8
Spectral bands (nm) B1: 404-424
B2: 431-451
B3: 476-496
B4: 500-520
B5: 546-566
B6: 610-630
B7: 725-755
B8: 845-885
Quantisation bits 12
Along track steering ± 20º
Data acquisition modes Local and global area coverage

For providing continuity of operational services of Oceansat-1, ISRO

launched Oceansat-2 along with six nano European satellites in September,
2009 by PSLV-C14. The satellite has three payloads such as an OCM, a
Ku-band pencil Beam Scatterometer (SCAT) and a Radio Occultation Sounder
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Sensors and Space satellite dedicated to ocean research. It is placed at an altitude of 720 km with an
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inclination of 98.28°. The main objectives of Oceansat-2 include study of surface
winds and ocean surface strata, observation of chlorophyll concentrations,
identification of potential fishing zones, monitoring of phytoplankton blooms, study
of atmospheric aerosols, suspended sediments in the water and providing inputs for
general meteorological observations.

Resourcesat
Resourcesat-1 (Fig. 6.5) is the most advanced remote sensing satellite built by
ISRO and was launched in October, 2003 by PSLV-C5. It is the tenth satellite
of the IRS series and is also known as IRS-P6. It is placed at an altitude of 817
Fig. 6.5: Resourcesat-1
km in a sun-synchronous polar orbit. Resourcesat-1 is designed to provide
satellite (source:
www.isro.org) continuity of the remote sensing data services of IRS-1C/1D in both
multispectral and panchromatic imagery. It contains three sensor system viz.
LISS-III, LISS-IV, and Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) with greatly
improved spatial resolutions. Data products obtained from this satellite may be
used for advanced applications in vegetation dynamics, disaster management,
crop yield estimates, etc. In 2011, ISRO has launched Resourcesat-2, which is
a follow on mission to Resourcesat-1. Resourcesat-2 is an improved version of
Resourcesat-1. It is placed at an altitude of 822 km in a circular polar sun-
synchronous orbit.

National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Hyderabad (A.P.), is continually

acquiring and archiving data from IRS series. In addition, data from other
contemporary satellites are also being received. Data collected by IRS series
can be used for pre-harvest crop acreage and production estimates, monitoring
of seasonal drought, flood damage assessment, landuse and landcover
mapping, planning of agro-climatic zones, monitoring of forest covers, soil
mapping, determination of potential fishing zones and sustainable
development of the country.

Cartosat

Since 2005, ISRO has launched four CARTOSATs namely - CARTOSAT-1,

CARTOSAT-2, CARTOSAT-2A and CARTOSAT-2B (Fig. 6.6). CARTOSAT-
1(also known as IRS-P5) is a stereoscopic Earth observation satellite operating
in a sun-synchronous orbit that is primarily deployed for cartographic
applications. It was launched in May, 2005 by PSLV-C6 from the newly built
second launch pad at Sriharikota. It contains two panchromatic cameras that
capture black and white stereoscopic pictures. The imageries have a spatial
resolution of 2.5 m and cover a swath of 30 km. CARTOSAT- 2 (also known
as IRS-P7) is another Earth observation satellite having a circular polar sun-
synchronous orbit and capable of providing scene-specific imageries for
cartographic applications. It was launched by PSLV in January, 2007 and was
placed at an altitude of 630 km above the Earth with an inclination of 97.91°.
Its panchromatic camera provides less than 1m spatial resolution imageries
with a ground swath of 10 km.

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 Major Space Programmes

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Fig. 6.6: Schematics of (a) CARTOSAT-1, (b) CARTOSAT-2, (c) CARTOSAT-2A and (d)
CARTOSAT-2B satellites (source: www.isro.org)

CARTOSAT-2A was launched by PSLV-C9 in April, 2008 along with an Indian

mini satellite (IMS-1) and eight other nano research satellites belonging to Canada,
Denmark, Germany, Japan and Netherlands. It was placed at an altitude of 635 km
with an inclination of 97.94°. It contains a panchromatic camera having a spatial
resolution better than 1m and swath of 9.6 km. Data products of the satellites can
be used for cartographic applications like mapping, urban and rural infrastructure
development and management as well as application in land information and GIS.
CARTOSAT-2B is the latest and an advanced Indian remote sensing satellite. It
represents seventeenth satellite in the IRS series and was launched in July, 2010 by
PSLV-C15 along with Algerian satellite, one nano satellite each from Canada and
Switzerland and StudSat, a pico satellite from Sriharikota. It was placed at an
altitude of 630 km in a polar sun-synchronous orbit at an inclination of 97.71º.

CARTOSAT-2B carries a panchromatic camera similar to CARTOSAT-2 and 2A.

It is capable of imaging a swath of 9.6 km with a resolution of 0.8 m. The scene
specific spot panchromatic imagery of CARTOSAT-2B is useful for cartographic
and a host of other applications. The satellite has high agility with capability to steer
along as well as across the track up to ± 26o to obtain stereoscopic imagery and
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Sensors and Space achieve a four to five day revisit capability.
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6.3.2 Radar Imaging Satellite Series

Radar Imaging Satellites (RISAT) are a series of Indian radar (microwave) imaging
reconnaissance satellites developed by ISRO. It differs from IRS series by having a
multi-mode Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) as the sole payload for RISAT.
Basically, SAR is an all weather imaging active sensor which is capable of taking
images of the Earth in cloudy and snow covered regions and also both during day
and night. RISAT provides advantages over the earlier Indian Earth observation
satellites of IRS series which rely mainly on optical and spectral sensors which
cannot image areas during night as well as covered by snow and clouds. RISAT-2
(Fig. 6.7) is the first satellite of the RISAT series. It was launched successfully by
ISRO on 20th April, 2009 by PSLV-C12 along with micro ANUSAT from the
Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota. It has C-band SAR payload operating in
a multi-polarisation and multi-resolution mode. It is placed at an altitude of 550 km
above the Earth’s surface and having an inclination of 41°. RISAT-2 weighed about
Fig. 6.7: RISAT-2
satellite (source:
300 Kg and was jointly manufactured by ISRO and Israel aerospace industries
www.isro.org) space division. On the other hand, ANUSAT which is the first experimental
communication satellite developed by Anna University, Chennai under the overall
guidance of ISRO demonstrates technologies related to message store and forward
operations.

RISAT-2 enhances ISRO’s capability in Earth observation with microwave remote

sensing. Its basic focus is on agriculture and to provide requisite temporal sampling
capability which is important for monitoring Khariff crop produced during
monsoon season. The C-band frequency operation of RISAT-2 also ensures wide
applicability data in the thrust areas like vegetation, forestry, soil moisture, geology,
sea ice, coastal processes, man-made object identification, cyclones, landslides and
flood mapping in a more effective way. RISAT-2 is also known as spy satellite as it
helps security agencies of India to keep an eye on the country’s borders round the
clock.

6.3.3 Indian National Satellite Series

Indian National Satellites (INSAT) series is a series of geostationary communication
satellites. It was commissioned with the launch of INSAT-1B in August 1983,
shortly after the launch of satellites APPLE and INSAT-1A. It is a series of multi-
purpose satellites launched by ISRO to provide indigenous services in
telecommunications, broadcasting, meteorology, and search and rescue operations
in India. It is developed jointly by the Department of Space (DOS), Department of
Telecommunications (DOT), India Meteorological Department (IMD), All India
Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan (DD). Now it has been representing one of the
largest domestic communication satellites systems in Asian-Pacific region providing
about 175 transponders in C, Ku and S frequency bands. INSAT space segment
consists of twenty four satellites out of which eleven satellites such as INSAT-2E,
INSAT-3B, INSAT-3C, KALPANA-1, INSAT-3A, GSAT-2, INSAT-3E,
EDUSAT, INSAT-4A, INSAT-4B, and INSAT-4CR are presently in service
(Table 6.5). Satellites of INSAT series are monitored and controlled by master
control facilities at Hassan and Bhopal. Satellites of INSAT series are commonly
placed at an altitude of about 36,000 km above equator in the geostationary orbit.
As a consequence, they remained at a fixed position relative to Earth.
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Bhopal. Satellites of INSAT series are commonly placed at an altitude of about Major Space Programmes
36,000 km above equator in the geostationary orbit. As a consequence, they
remained at a fixed position relative to Earth.

Table 6.5: Communication satellites of India (after overview of Indian

space sector, 2010).
S. No. Spacecraft Launch date Launch vehicle Mission Status
th
1. APPLE 19 June, 1981 Ariane-1 Completed
2. INSAT-1A 10th April, 1982 Delta Failed after 5 months
th
3. INSAT-1B 30 August, 1983 Space shuttle Completed
4. INSAT-1C 21st July, 1988 Ariane-3 Failed after 2.5 years
th
5. INSAT-1D 12 June, 1990 Delta Completed
6. INSAT-2A 10th July, 1992 Ariane-4 Completed
rd
7. INSAT-2B 23 July, 1993 Ariane-4 Completed
8. INSAT-2C 7th December, 1995 Ariane-4 Completed
th
9. INSAT-2D 4 June, 1997 Ariane-4 Failed after 4 months
10. INSAT-2E 3rd April, 1999 Ariane-4 In operation
nd
11. INSAT-3B 22 March, 2000 Ariane-5 In operation
12. GSAT-1 18th April, 2001 GSLV-D1 Completed
th
13. INSAT-3C 24 January, 2002 Ariane-4 In operation
14. KALPANA-1 12th September, 2002 PSLV-C4 In operation
th
15. INSAT-3A 4 April, 2003 Ariane-5 In operation
16. GSAT-2 28th September, 2003 GSLV-D2 In operation
th
17. INSAT-3E 28 September, 2003 Ariane-5 In operation
18. EDUSAT 20th September, 2004 GSLV-F1 In operation
th
19. HAMSAT 5 May, 2005 PSLV-C6 Completed
20. INSAT-4A 22nd December, 2005 Ariane-5 In operation
th
21. INSAT-4C 10 July, 2006 GSLV-F2 Launch failed
22. INSAT-4B 12th March, 2007 Ariane-5 In operation
23. INSAT-4CR 2nd September, 2007 GSLV-F4 In operation
24. GSAT-4 15th April, 2010 GSLV-D3 Not placed in orbit

Check Your Progress I Spend

5 mins
1) How many remote sensing satellites have been launched by ISRO?
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......................................................................................................................
2) Write about the uses of IRS and INSAT series.
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Sensors and Space
Programmes 6.4 GLOBAL SPACE PROGRAMMES
A number of remote sensing satellites have been launched by various space
organisations of the world to collect remote sensing data. USA, European
Union, Russia, Japan, China and Canada are leading countries in Earth
observation satellite programmes. Let us now discuss about the important
international remote sensing satellite programmes.

6.4.1 Landsat
Landsat satellite system is a joint venture of NASA and U.S. Geological
Survey (USGS) to gather Earth resource data using a series of satellites. It is
an unmanned system that was originally called ERTS (Earth Resources
Technology Satellite) and later its name was changed to Landsat in 1974. Up
to now seven Landsat satellites have been launched (Table 6.6). NASA
operated Landsat system through early 1980s, but in January 1983
responsibility for operating the system was transferred to commercial division
of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In
October, 1985, Earth Observation Satellite Company (EOSAT) took
responsibility of operating Landsat-4 and 5. According to the Land Remote
Sensing Policy Act of 1992, Landsat programme returned to the Government
under joint management of U.S. Department of Defence and NASA. Landsat
programme management structure changed repeatedly from 1992 through
1998. As a result, USGS assumed operational responsibility for Landsat
programme in 1999 and NASA continued flight operations for Landsat-7.

Table 6.6: List of Landsat series of satellites launched by USA

Satellite Launched De-commissioned Sensors
rd
Landsat-1 23 July, 1972 January 6, 1978 MSS and RBV
Landsat-2 22nd January, 1975 February 25, 1982 MSS and RBV
th
Landsat-3 5 March, 1978 March 31, 1983 MSS and RBV
Landsat-4 16th July, 1982 June 30, 2001 MSS and TM
st
Landsat-5 1 March , 1984 (Operational) MSS and TM
Landsat-6 5th October, 1993 (Did not achieve orbit) ETM
th
Landsat-7 15 April, 1999 (Operational) ETM+

All Landsat satellites have flown in a sun-synchronous orbit. Out of seven

Landsats, the first three (Fig. 6.8a) Landsat-1, 2 and 3 launched in 1972, 1975
and 1978, respectively, are known as first generation Landsats. They are
placed at an altitude of 919 km with an inclination of 99°. Platform of these
Landsats was a modified version of pre-existing Nimbus meteorological
satellite. Multispectral Scanner (MSS) and Return-Beam Vidicon (RBV) were
the imaging systems for these Landsats. Landsats orbited the Earth every 103
minutes, completing 14 orbits per day. It took 18 days and 251 overlapping
orbits to provide almost complete coverage of the Earth’s surface with 185 km
image swaths. On the other hand Landsat-4 and 5 (Fig. 6.8b) belong to the
second generation Landsats and consist of two Landsats launched in 1982 and
1984. MSS and a new improved Thematic Mapper (TM) were the main
sensors in these Landsats. Landsat-4 and 5 placed at lower altitude about 705
km than Landsat-1 to 3. As a result, only 233 orbits and 16 days are required
56
for Landsat-4 and 5 to cover the Earth. These satellites collected data over a Major Space Programmes
185 km swath.

(a) (b)

Fig. 6.8: (a) Schematics of Landsats-1 to 3 and (b) Landsat-5 (source: http://landsat.usgs.gov)

Launch of Landsat-6 failed because satellite did not achieve required orbital
position. It was equipped with the first version of the Enhanced Thematic
Mapper (ETM) sensor which had new capability of imaging in a 15x15 m
panchromatic band as well as in other 7 spectral bands. Landsat-7 was
successfully launched in 1999. It is placed at an altitude of 705 km above the
Earth. The payload of Landsat-7 is a single nadir pointing instrument which is
called Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+). ETM+, the successor of TM,
records data in scan line corrector (SLC) mode (Fig. 6.9a). Unfortunately, SLC
mode of ETM+ failed in 2003 and subsequent efforts to recover SLC were not
successful. Without an operating SLC, ETM+ line of sight now traces a zig-
zag pattern along the satellite ground track (Fig. 6.9b). As a result, imaged
area is duplicated with width that increases toward the scene edge and about
22% of any given scene is lost because of this failure.

(a) (b)

Fig. 6.9: (a) Scan line corrector mode of Landsat-7 and (b) failure of SLC (source:
www.landsat.usgs.gov)

Data gathered by Landsats have extensively been used by government,

commercial, industrial and educational institutions over the globe. The
changes in agricultural areas, deforestation, natural disasters, desertification,
urbanisation and degradation of water resources can be monitored with the
Landsats data. Characteristics of Landsat sensor system are given in Table 6.7.

57
Sensors and Space Table 6.7: Landsat sensor system characteristics
Programmes
S. No. Sensor type Band Spectral resolution (μm) Spatial resolution (m)
1. Multispectral 1 0.5-0.6 (green) 80
Scanner (MSS) 2 0.6-0.7 (red) 80
3 0.7-0.8 (red - NIR) 80
4 0.8-1.0 (NIR) 80
2. Thematic 1 0.45-0.52 (blue) 30
Mapper (TM)
2 0.52-0.60 (green) 30
3 0.63-0.69 (red) 30
4 0.76-0.90 (NIR) 30
5 1.55-1.75 (mid-IR) 30
6 10.4-12.5 (thermal-IR) 120
7 2.08-2.35 (mid-IR) 30
3. Enhanced 1 0.450-0.515 (blue) 30
Thematic
2 0.525-0.605 (green) 30
Mapper
(ETM+) 3 0.630-0.690 (red) 30
4 0.750-0.900 (NIR) 30
5 1.55-1.75 (mid-IR) 30
6 10.4-12.5 (thermal-IR) 60
7 2.08-2.35 (mid-IR) 30
PAN 0.52-0.90 (visible-IR) 15

6.4.2 SPOT
SPOT (Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre) programme consists of a
series of high-resolution optical remote sensing satellites. This series is being
developed and operated by the French Space Agency, Centre National
d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES). The primary mission of this programme is to
obtain Earth imagery for landuse, agriculture, forestry, geology, cartography,
regional planning, water resources and GIS applications. Five SPOT satellites
have been launched since 1986, which are providing medium to high
resolution images of the Earth’s surface. The SPOT satellites are in a sun-
synchronous orbit at an altitude of about 810 km. SPOT-1 satellite was
launched on 21st February, 1986. It had a spatial resolution of 10 × 10 m in
panchromatic and 20 × 20 m in multispectral mode. SPOT-2 and 3 having
same payloads as that of SPOT-1, were launched on 22nd January, 1990 and
25th September, 1998, respectively. SPOT-1, 2, and 3 are all identical and
consist of a multipurpose platform known as SPOT bus, two identical High
Resolution Visible (HRV) sensors and a package of data recorders and
transmitter. HRV sensors operate in both panchromatic and multispectral
modes. Thus, spectral resolution of SPOT-1 to 3 is not as good as that of the
Landsat TM. SPOT-3 mission failed in November, 1996, but 1 and 2 are still
operational.

SPOT-4 successfully launched in March 1998 and has similar features to that
of the previous satellites. But it has additional spectral Short Wave Infrared
(SWIR) band equivalent to TM band 5 of Landsat dedicated for vegetation
58
and soil moisture applications. It is equipped with two High Resolution Major Space Programmes
Visible Infrared (HRVIR) push-broom imaging sensors. Each HRVIR had a
swath width of 60 km. HRVIR was derived from HRV sensors of SPOT-1 to
3. SPOT-4 provided 10 m spatial resolution in the panchromatic band and 20
m resolution in the multispectral bands. SPOT-5 was launched in May, 2002
and is the most innovative satellite of the series. It is equipped with High
Resolution Stereoscopic (HRS), High Resolution Geometry (HRG) and
Vegetation sensors. The new HRS and HRG instruments derived from the
HRVIR instrument of SPOT-4 which offers high resolution in across-track
direction with 2.5 m resolution in panchromatic mode and 10 m in the visible
and NIR ranges. Different characteristics of SPOT sensor system are given in
Table 6.8.

Table 6.8: SPOT sensor system characteristics

S.No. Sensor type Band Spectral resolution (μm) Spatial resolution (m)
1. High-resolution 1 0.50-0.59 (green) 20
visible (HRV)
2 0.61-0.68 (red) 20
for SPOT-2
and -3 3 0.79-0.89 (NIR) 20
PAN 0.51-0.73 (visible-IR) 10
2. High-resolution 1 0.50-0.59 (green) 20
visible-infrared 2 0.61-0.68 (red) 20
(HRVIR) for
SPOT-4 3 0.78-0.89 (NIR) 20
4 1.58-1.75 (mid-IR) 20
PAN 0.61-0.68 (red) 10
3. HRVIR for 1 0.50-0.59 (green) 10
SPOT-5 2 0.61-0.68 (red) 10
3 0.78-0.89 (NIR) 10
4 1.58-1.75 (mid-IR) 20
PAN 0.51-0.73 (visible-IR) 5
4. Vegetation 1 0.43-0.47 (blue) 1000
for SPOT-4
2 0.61-0.68 (red) 1000
and 5
3 0.78-0.89 (NIR) 1000
4 1.58-1.75 (mid-IR) 1000

6.4.3 RADARSAT

RADARSAT is the first sophisticated Earth observation satellite of Canada. It

was built under the management of Canadian Space Agency in co-operation
with provincial governments and private sector. Until now two RADARSATs
have been launched. RADARSAT-1 was launched in 1995 by NASA on a
Delta II rocket. It was placed into a near polar sun-synchronous orbit at an
altitude of 798 km above the Earth at an inclination of 98.6°. It orbits the
Earth 14 times per day in which each orbit takes 100.7 minutes to complete.

RADARSAT-1 has dawn-dusk orbit which enable it to cross the equator at

dawn and dusk, i.e. 6.00 a.m. and 6.00 p.m. of local time. Further, this orbit
keeps solar cell arrays of the satellite in almost continuous sunlight and
59
Sensors and Space ensures satellite to rely on solar energy rather than battery power. It is
Programmes
equipped with an advanced single C-band radar sensor SAR. RADARSAT
SAR is a powerful microwave instrument which transmits a microwave
energy pulse in C-band having 5.3 GHz frequency to the Earth. SAR measures
the amount of energy that is reflected back to the satellite from the Earth’s
surface. It has a wide variety of beam widths which can capture swaths from
45 to 500 km with resolution from 8 to 100 m and at incidence angles from
10° to 60°.

RADARSAT-1 is horizontally polarised in which microwaves travel

horizontal to the Earth’s surface (Fig. 6.10a). It has seven images sizes namely
fine, standard, wide, scanSAR narrow, scanSAR wide, extended low and
extended high which are collectively termed as beam modes (Fig. 6.11). As a
consequence, it provides a range of spatial resolution and geographic
coverage.

Fig. 6.10: (a) Horizontal polarisation in RADASAT-1 and (b) both horizontal and
vertical polarisation in RADARSAT-2. H – horizontal and V – vertical
(source: www.asc-csa.gc.ca)

Fig. 6.11: RADARSAT-1 imaging modes (source: www.asc-csa.gc.ca)

Fig. 6.12: RADASAT- 2 The world’s most advanced commercial C-band SAR satellite RADARSAT-2
satellite (source: was launched in 2007 (Fig. 6.12). It retains many specifications of
www.asc-csa.gc.ca) RADARSAT-1 (e.g., imaging modes and orbital parameters). But some
significant modification of RADASAT-2 made it a premier Earth observation
radar remote sensing system. These modifications include 3 m high resolution
imaging, both horizontal and vertical polarisation imaging modes (Fig. 6.10b),
60
left and right looking imaging options, superior data storage and onboard GPS Major Space Programmes
receivers for monitoring satellite position.

RADARSAT supply data to monitor environmental changes and natural

resources of Earth at national as well as global level. It also provides
important information in the fields of agriculture, hydrology, cartography,
forestry, oceanography and coastal monitoring for both scientific and
commercial users.

6.4.4 European Remote Sensing Satellites

European Remote Sensing satellite (ERS) is a European programme for Earth
observation sponsored by the European Space Agency. Under this programme
two satellites ERS-1 and ERS-2 (Fig. 6.13) have been designed and developed
to observe oceans and its circulation, sea ice distribution, sea surface wind and
land areas with high resolution radar. ERS-1 was launched in July, 1991. It is
placed in sun-synchronous polar orbit at an altitude of about 785 km at an
inclination of 98.5°. It has a ground swath width of 100 km. It is equipped
with a comprehensive payload including an imaging C-band SAR, radar
altimeter, wind scatterometer, along-track scanning radiometer, micro-wave
sounder and other powerful instruments to measure ocean surface temperature
and winds at sea. During 1995, ERS-2 was launched which represents a
follow-on mission of ERS-1. ERS-2 is identical to ERS-1 but it is provided
with an additional sensor to monitor atmospheric ozone levels. There is about
30 minutes time lag between ERS-1 and ERS-2, in the same orbital plane as a
consequence a one day interval between ERS- 1 and ERS-2 is observed on the
same ground swath. Both ERS-1 and ERS-2 were operated in tandem from
August, 1995 to May, 1996 to provide image pairs for SAR interferometry
research. In March, 2000, ERS-1 satellite finally ended its operations but
ERS-2 is expected to continue operating for several more years.

(a) (b)

Fig. 6.13: (a) ERS-1 and (b) ERS-2 (source: www.esa.int)

6.4.5 Japanese Earth Resource Satellites

National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan launched the Fig. 6.14: JERS-1
Japanese Earth Resource Satellite, JERS-1 in 1992 (Fig. 6.14). JERS-1 satellite (source:
(FUYO-1in Japanese) is an advanced Earth observation satellite which is www.jaxa.jp)
jointly developed by NASDA and the Ministry of International Trade and
Industry (MITI), Japan. NASDA developed satellite bus, while MITI built
61
Sensors and Space JERS-1 gathered data on global land masses which have great applications in the
Programmes
fields of land surveys, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, environmental management,
disaster prevention, coastal surveillance and for locating natural resources.

Check Your Progress II

1) SPOT-1 satellite had a spatial resolution of ................... in panchromatic and
................................. in multispectral mode.

2) JERS-1 had a spatial resolution ............... in cross-track and ..................... in

along-track direction.

6.5 COMMERCIAL REMOTE SENSING

SATELLITES
Recently, some high resolution Earth observation satellites have been
launched by commercial operators such as DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, ImageSat
International and Leica Geosystems. Let us now discuss about some of the
successful commercial satellites.
Spend
5 mins 6.5.1 QuickBird
QuickBird (Fig. 6.15) is a remote sensing satellite of DigitalGlobe which is a
commercial imagery provider company with headquarters located at
Longmont, Colorado, USA. Up-to-date DigitalGlobe launched four
commercial satellites namely - EarlyBird-1, QuickBird, WorldView-1 and
WorldView-2 in December, 1997, October, 2001, September, 2007, and
October, 2009, respectively. DigitalGlobe lost communication with EarlyBird-
1 after four days of its launching. But other satellites are functioning
successfully.

QuickBird represents first satellite in a constellation of sub-meter spacecraft

that developed by DigitalGlobe. It offers a unique highly accurate and
commercial high resolution imagery of Earth. It was launched on 18th October,
2001 by Boeing Delta II launch vehicle into a 600 km orbit. It has a swath
width of 20 to 40 km. It offers images with 0.61 × 0.61 m panchromatic and
2.44 × 2.44 m multispectral spatial resolution. Its revisit time ranges from 1 to 5
days. It is the fourth satellite which obtains highest resolution commercial
imagery of Earth after WorldView-1, WorldView-2 and GeoEye-1. It has a
greatest capacity of on-board storage of data than any other satellites. It is capable
of acquiring more than 75 million km2 of imagery data yearly and also allowing
DigitalGlobe to update its image library at rapid speed. The high quality satellite
imagery of QuickBird is commonly used for map creation, change detection and
Fig. 6.15: Quickbird image analysis.
satellite (source:
www.digitalglobe.com)
6.5.2 IKONOS
IKONOS is a satellite of GeoEye Inc. (formerly known as ORBIMAGE or Orbital
Imaging Corporation) which is a commercial imagery provider company located in
Herndon, Virginia, USA. GeoEye Inc. has launched IKONOS, OrbView-2
(SeaStar), OrbView-3 and GeoEye-1 satellites in 1999, 1997, 2003 and 2008,
respectively. The first IKONOS was launched on 27th April, 1999 but
unfortunately, it never achieved its orbit. Subsequently, a second IKONOS was
62
launched successfully on 24th September, 1999. Major Space Programmes

The IKONOS is in a sun-synchronous 681 km orbit with an inclination 98.1°. The

orbit provides daily access to regions within 45° of nadir, 3 day revisit within 26° of
nadir and 141 day revisit within 1° of nadir. The satellite provides imagery with
spatial resolution of 1 × 1 m in panchromatic band and 44 m in multispectral bands.
One meter colour imagery can be created by merging IKONOS’s panchromatic
and multispectral imageries. In addition, the satellite has both cross-track and
along-track sensors which allow it to acquire data flexibly having frequent revisit
capability. Satellite collects data at a rate of over 2,000 km2/m. As a result, it has
collected over 250 million km2 of imagery of Earth surface digitally. High spatial
resolution imagery collected by IKONOS is being largely used for national security,
military mapping, Earth resources management, air and marine transportation, and
city and urban planning.

6.5.3 OrbView
OrbView is another group of satellites belonging to GeoEye. Four OrbView
satellites have been launched by GeoEye. OrbView-1 was launched in April,
1995. It is an atmosphere monitoring satellite that provided weather data to
NASA. Following this, GeoEye launched OrbView-2 in August, 1997. It
provides images of oceans which are useful for the study of global warming,
commercial fishing, environmental and coastal monitoring. In June 2003, the
third satellite of the series, OrbView-3 was launched successfully. OrbView-4
was launched in September, 2001 but this satellite failed to reach required
orbit.

OrbView-3 was designed to provide high resolution imagery of the Earth (Fig.
6.16). It was successfully launched on 26th June, 2003. This satellite is
equipped with a camera to take images with 1 × 1 m in panchromatic and 4×4
m in multispectral spatial resolution at a swath width of 8 km. It is in a 470
km sun-synchronous orbit with an equatorial crossing time of 10.30 a.m. The
sensor revisits locations on Earth in less than three days. OrbView-3 is the first
commercial satellite to supply high resolution imagery from space. Therefore,
the imageries collected by it can be used for environmental monitoring,
construction planning, precise mapping and intelligence gathering.

6.6 SUMMARY
In this unit, you have studied about:
• Remote sensing satellites which are being operated by various countries.
Notably among them are IRS series, CARTOSATs and RISAT of ISRO,
India; Landsat of NASA and USGS, USA; SPOT of FSA, France;
RADARSAT of CSA, Canada; ERS of ESA, Europe; JERS-1 of
NASDA, Japan and commercial satellites such as QuickBird of
DigitalGlobe, and IKONOS and OrbView-3 of GeoEye.

• Remote sensing satellites equipped with improved sensor systems are

placed in a sun-synchronous orbit with difference in altitude above the
Earth (average altitude is 900 km). They record imagery of the Earth at
different spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions.
63
Sensors and Space • Under IRS series of ISRO, India has launched 18 remote sensing satellites.
Programmes
Data gathered from IRS series is received, processed and disseminated from
NRSC, Hyderabad. It is extensively used for monitoring of crops health,
drought conditions, forest covers, natural resources; land use and land cover
mapping; disaster management and sustainable development of the country.
CARTOSAT data is mostly used for cartography and a host of other
applications.

• India has made tremendous progress in the field of communication by

launching 24 satellites under the INSAT series of ISRO. Out of 24, eleven
are active and giving continuous service. Satellites of INSAT series are
providing indigenous services in telecommunications, broadcasting,
meteorology, and search and rescue operations in India.

• Quickbird has highest resolution which is followed by IKONOS and

OrbView-3. But Landsat and SPOT are the more popular groups of
satellites than others because these satellites are extensively used as they
also provide wide spectral range.

• A group of advanced Earth observation satellites such as RISAT,

RADARSAT, ERS-1 and 2, and JERS-1 operating in C and L-band
frequency of microwaves have been launched. These satellites equipped
with active sensors, record 24 hours data of the Earth during day and
night and they also include regions covered by clouds, snow and ice.

6.7 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1) Discuss Earth resource remote sensing satellites.
2) Differeniate between IRS and INSAT series of satellites.
3) Discuss RADARSAT.

6.8 REFERENCES
• http://landsat.usgs.gov.
• www.asc-csa.gc.ca.
• www.digitalglobe.com.
• www.esa.int.
• www.geoeye.com.
Spend • www.isro.org.
30 mins
• www.jaxa.jp.
All the above websites were retrieved between 15 May, 2011 and 30 June, 2011.

6.9 FURTHER/SUGGESTED READING

• Gupta, R. P., (2003), Remote Sensing Geology, 2nd Ed., Springer-Verlag,
Berlin.
• Jensen, J. R., (2009), Remote Sensing of the Environment – An Earth
Resource Perspective, 2nd Ed., Dorling Kinderslay India Pvt. Ltd, New
64
 Delhi. Major Space Programmes

• Joseph, G. (2005), Fundamentals of Remote Sensing, University Press (India)

Pvt. Ltd, hyderabad.

6.10 ANSWERS
Check Your Progress I

1) 18

2) IRS is being used to record earth’s resources data. INSAT is being used for
communication, television broadcasting, weather monitoring and weather
forecasting.

Check Your Progress II

1) 1010 m in panchromatic and 2020 m multispectral.

2) 18.3 m in cross-track and 24.2 m in along-track.

Unit End Questions

1) It includes all man-made staellites which are used to study the Earth’s surface
to explore its natural resources and other phenomena useful to humans. These
are placed in sun-synchronous orbit so that they can take repeated images of a
location.

2) Refer to subsections 6.3.1 and 6.3.3.

3) Refer to section 6.4.3.

65
Sensors and Space
Programmes GLOSSARY
Band: A wavelength interval in the electromagnetic spectrum. For example, in
Landsat by non-photographic methods.
C-band: The region of radar wavelength from 4 - 8 cm.
Contrast: The ratio between the energy emitted or reflected by an object and
its immediate surroundings.
Detectability: The ability of a remote sensing system to record the presence or
absence of a feature on the landscape
GPS: The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation
system made up of a network of 24 satellites placed into orbit by the U.S.
Department of Defence.
Ground resolution cell: Area on the terrain that is covered by the IFOV of a
detector.
Ground swath: The width of the strip of terrain that is scanned by a sensor
system.
Image: Pictorial representation of a scene recorded by a remote sensing
system. Although image is a general term, it is commonly restricted to
representations acquired images the bands designate specific wavelength
intervals at which images are acquired.
Instantaneous field of view (IFOV): Solid angle through which a detector is
sensitive to radiation. In a scanning system, the solid angle subtended by the
detector when the scanning motion is stopped.
Laser altimeter: Laser altimeter is an instrument that measures the height or
elevation of the terrain from an aircraft or a satellite.
L-band: The region of radar wavelength from 15 to 30 cm.
MSS: The multispectral scanner of Landsat that acquires images at four
wavelength bands in the visible and reflected infrared regions.
Noise: Random or repetitive events that obscure or interfere with the desired
information.
Orbital period: The orbital period is the time taken for a given object to make
one complete orbit about another object.
Passive remote sensing: Uses natural energy, either reflected sunlight or
emitted thermal or microwave radiation
Radar: Radar is an object-detection system which uses electromagnetic waves
specifically radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed.
Recognisability: The ability of the human interpreter to identify a feature
detected by the sensor but may not be recognisable (e.g., narrow straight lines
in an image may be roads, railways, or canals).

66
Resolution cell: The cell defined by the resolutions in the range and azimuth Major Space Programmes
directions (does not mean the same thing as pixel). Pixel sizes need not be the
same thing. This is important since (i) the independent elements in the scene
are resolutions cells, (ii) neighbouring pixels may exhibit some correlation.
Resolution: Ability to separate closely spaced objects on an image or
photograph. Resolution is commonly expressed as the most closely spaced
line-pairs per unit distance that can be distinguished.
Round Trip Time (RTT): In a satellite network, Round Trip Time (RTT) is
the time required for a signal to travel from a terrestrial system up to the
satellite and back, or for a signal to travel from a satellite down to a terrestrial
system and back up to the satellite again.
Satellite: An object revolving around earth or any planet. Man-made satellites
are called artificial satellites e.g. IRS-1A. Other satellites are called natural
satellites e.g. Moon.
Scatterometer: A calibrated radar that measures the scattering properties of a
surface and it is designed for back scatter measurements
Spectral reflectance: Reflectance of electromagnetic energy at specified
wavelength intervals.
Stratosphere: The stratosphere is the second major layer of Earth’s
atmosphere.
Swath: It is the area imaged on the surface by the sensor.
TM: A cross-track scanner of Landsat that records seven bands of data from
visible to the thermal infrared regions.

67