Space agency ISROhas announced ajoint Indo-French infrared earth observation satellite mission,TRISHNA (Thermal Infra-Red Imaging Satellite for High-Resolution Natural Resource Assessment),to monitor surface temperature and water management around the world.
About This Project
The project, which comes when bothIndia and Europehave been assailed byextreme heat,will providedata points for climate impactson earth throughevapotranspiration monitoring,which measures the evaporation of water from land as well as release from plants.
- The mission will studywater presence and concentrations, as well as dynamics including melting glaciers, in various parts of the biosphere, quantifying water being used on land and how. ISRO said for heat, thesatellite will monitor thermal anomalies and spikes, emission of heat from land, surface energy, urban heat islands, and other global parametres.
- In the process, the satellite will also studyaerosols, water vapour, and cloudsin the atmosphere around the world.
- It is currently tentatively set tolaunch in 2025with anexpected lifespan of 5 years.
Payloads and parameters
- The satellite willcarry two primary payloads. TheThermal Infra-Red (TIR) payloadwill be provided by theFrench space agency CNES,and will be afour channel long-wavelength infrared imaging sensorthat will study high-resolution surface temperature. It will also map the amounts ofheat radiated back from land in different regions.
- TheVisible Near Infrared-Red Short Wave Infrared-Red (VNIR-SWIR)payload is beingdeveloped by ISRO, and will map over seven bands the reflectivity oralbedo of earth’s surface.This will measure the amount of heat reflecting off the earth’s surface, and will also calculatevarious biophysical and radiation budget variables.
Expected Benefits of This Mission
- The mission is expected to boostremote sensing technology,which is monitoringearth from a distance up in the orbit. The satellite and the data it will provide is made more crucial as extreme temperatures and weather events take hold of the globe.
- ISRO said the mission would addresscritical water and food security issuesby providing essential data that can in turn be used for newer sustainable policies in water, among watershed managers,agro-industries, and the farming community in India.
- The infrared heat imaging in the satellite is also of quite high resolution, and the satellite has a“high-repeat”imaging capability (presumably to image the same area multiple times), which would help in improving understanding of earth’s natural processes to aid global climate change mitigation efforts.
- ISRO also said theTRISHNA missionwill addresscrucial water and food security challenges, focusing onanthropogenic or human-induced impacts of climate change.
