OCEANSAT 2: mission and its applications

Monitoring of the Geo-physical and Bio-geo-physical parameters of the global oceans at meso-scales is an important aspect of the Space borne Earth Remote sensing for weather forecasting and climatic studies. ISRO has initiated action in this direction by launching the IRS-P4 satellite in May 1999 which carried two instruments, an Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM) and a Multi-frequency Scanning Microwave Radiometer (MSMR). These payloads provided valuable data over Indian ocean with limited global coverage for many applications like PFZ, SST, water vapour content, monsoon forecasting etc,. The Oceansat-2 Mission will provide continuity of services of IRS-P4 with enhanced application potential. It will carry a Ku-Band pencil beam Scatterometer for global wind vector measurements and OCM with optimized spectral characteristics. The Satellite is configured to support these Payloads operation covering the global oceans with a two-day repetevity. While meeting the continued demand of its present data users, the OCM will have several enhanced applications in the areas of Chlorophyll concentration and primary productivity, suspended sedimentation dynamics, Carbon cycle monitoring, marine pollutants/oil slicks etc,. The Ku-band Scatterometer will cover ~ 97% of the global oceans daily and will provide measurements of surface wind vectors. This data will be a major input for the local weather forecasting and NWP models. The Scatterometer data is also used for sea state forecasting and ocean dynamics, monitoring of extreme events like cyclones/hurricanes, Polar Ice studies etc,. In this paper, a brief description of the Payload Instruments, Satellite Mainframe elements, Mission operations plan and typical applications are covered.