General Knowledge-Current Affairs-India's advanced weather satellite INSAT-3D successfully launched from Kourou in French Guiana

India's advanced weather satellite INSAT-3D successfully launched from Kourou in French Guiana

India successfully launched its advanced weather satellite INSAT-3D from the space-port of Kourou in French Guiana early morning 26^th July 2013.  European space consortium Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket launched INSAT-3D and Alphasat satellites. This is the first Geo-Stationary sounder system over the Indian Ocean. 

Minutes after the launch, Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation K Radhakrishnan said that the Master Control Facility at Hassan in India has received signals from INSAT-3D. 

According to ISRO, INSAT-3D adds a new dimension to weather monitoring through its atmospheric sounding system, which provides vertical profiles of temperature, humidity and integrated ozone from surface to top of the atmosphere. 

ISRO's Master Control Facility, MCF, at Hassan in Karnataka, has taken over the control of the advanced weather satellite INSAT-3D that was successfully launched in the early hours on 26^th July 2013 from Kourou, French Guiana. According to ISRO release, soon after the separation of INSAT-3D from the Ariane-5’s upper cryogenic stage, the satellite’s Solar panel automatically got deployed. Preliminary health checks of all the subsystems of INSAT-3D were performed and the satellite’s health is satisfactory. ISRO sources say that orbit raising maneuvers will be performed in the coming days using the satellite’s propulsion system. The meteorological payloads will be turned on in the second week of next month.

An indigenously designed and developed INSAT-3D Meteorological Data Processing System is installed and commissioned at the Meteorological Department in New Delhi with a mirror site at Space Applications Centers in Bhopal and Ahmedabad. These centers will collate data from the satellite to give accurate weather report of the country.

INSAT-3D carried four payloads. The six-channel imager payload can take weather pictures of the Earth and has improved feature. The 19 channel sounder payload adds a new dimension to weather monitoring through its atmospheric sounding system, and provides vertical profiles of temperature, humidity and integrated ozone. Data relay transponder receives the meteorological, hydrological, oceanographic parameters sent by Automatic Data Collection platforms located at remote uninhabited locations and relays them to a processing center for generating accurate weather forecasts. The search and rescue payload picks up and relays alert signals originating from the distress beacons of maritime, aviation and land based users and relays them to the mission control center to facilitate speedy search and rescue operations.