INSAT captures, beams 1st weather images from space

HT's report on India's satellite transmitting weather images, marking a key milestone in the nation's space, meteorological progress

- HT Correspondent

India's multipurpose satellite, INSAT-IB, now in its space home, on September 25 flashed to the earth its first weather pictures both on visible and infrared bands.

The quality of the images of the "full earth disc" from the satellite, circling Earth aboard after being ferried to space on August 30 by the US space shuttle Challenger, and launched on August 31, was satisfactory, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) announced.

The pictures, scanned by the very high resolution radiometer (VHRR) instrument, were also received by the Indian Meteorological Department's Meteorological Data Utilisation Centre (MDUC) in New Delhi for processing.

According to an Isro press release, the full earth disc image - an image of the Earth's entire hemisphere - was scanned in about 22 minutes through both the visible and infrared channels of VHRR.