Cartosat-2 Satellite Constellation– Real Nightmare For The Enemies
India has launch its sixth satellite in the series of Cartosat-2 satellites. Cartosat-2 satellites are highly sophisticated remote-sensing satellites. It is developed to obtain high-resolution scene-specific spot imagery. The images from the previous satellites were getting used for civil work, but this new launch placed a different type of satellite in the orbit.
Cartosat satellites were facing doubts of being spy satellites of India, who can take high-resolution pictures of different places of near the capital which could be used for military purpose. The fact got cleared when the involvement of the satellite in the information gathering of the cross-border raid of Indian Army came out. Now ISRO launched the sixth satellite in the series which is particularly established in the space for the use of military of the country.
The satellites have attended very sophisticated level of automation, the user just needs to program the satellite according to its need and the satellite will take pictures according to required imagery. A dedicated imaging satellite for the military is a big step by India, the satellite will keep keeping track of any change in man-made or geographical features along its land and maritime borders.
Cartosat-2 can images of up to 100 cm in resolution, previously India use to buy images from Ikonos, which is a commercial Earth observation satellite. Ikonos offered 80 cm in resolution as compared 100 cm of resolution offered by indigenous satellite. Ikonos use to charge about $20 per square km of imagery while the Cartosat can do the according to the needs in very less price, moreover, it gave country self-reliance in imaging capabilities.
Cartosat-2 series satellite is an earth observation satellite that provides high-resolution scene-specific spot imagery providing data in various scales. It weighs about 714 kg. It is operated and maintained by the Indian Space Research Organisation.
Cartosat-2 is specially built with panchromatic (PAN) camera to take black and white pictures of the earth in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The satellite can be steered up to 45 degrees along as well as across the track. The images taken from the satellite will be useful for rural and urban spot applications, to identify coastal land use and regulations. The pictures taken will also help monitor the road network and water distribution, the creation of land use maps, change detection to bring out geographical and manmade features and various other Land Information System (LIS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) applications.
“Cartosat also provided Area of Interest (AOI) based images for the armed forces,” the source said. Another explained that based on requests, one or more scenes/images covering the AOI as specified is provided in as a single polygon (all the areas in one circle) in the form of a shapefile (non-topological geometry and attribute information for the spatial features).
According to the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) in Hyderabad, AOI products are of two types—standard and precision-based ortho (where images taken from space are corrected to have an uniform scale—both of which are useful for the armed forces. Ortho rectified products are corrected for terrain distortions and camera tilt effects.
While the first Cartosat was launched in 2005, Cartosat-2A launched in 2007 was the first dual-use satellite with capabilities of monitoring missile launches in India’s neighbourhood.
And, the Cartosat-2 is the best in the class that India boasts of although countries like the US and Israel boast of better ones. This satellite can not only click pictures of areas of interest, but also record videos of sensitive targets from space, compress it, and relay it back to earth.
On January 12 ISRO Launched PSLV which carried the Cartosat-2F remote sensing spacecraft and numerous 30 other co-passengers satellites,.
Cartosat-2F is the latest spacecraft in India’s fleet of remote sensing satellites. The seventh satellite based on ISRO’s Cartosat-2 design.
The images sent by the satellite will be useful for cartographic, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation besides Geographical Information System applications, among others.
The first image sent by Cartosat-2 series satellite. Photo
Source:- TNN, Defence Lover
