At a brief function organized at Antariksh Bhavan, the Headquarters of ISRO in Bangalore, Mr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO, released a book “Fundamentals of Remote Sensing”. Dr K Kasturirangan, Member of Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament) and former Chairman of ISRO, was the Chief Guest.

“Fundamentals of Remote Sensing” is authored by Dr George Joseph, Satish Dhawan Distinguished Professor of ISRO, who is one of the senior most and experienced remote sensing experts in India. This book covers the basics of remote sensing technologies and their applications in various fields with specific references to remote sensing technology and applications in India. Smooth flow and lucid explanation of technological terms has made the book easy to understand and simple to read. Well designed illustrations along with comprehensive bibliography and references have endeared it to the remote sensing enthusiasts and professionals alike.

Mr G Madhavan Nair (Right) presents a copy of the Book to Dr George Joseph. Dr K Kasturirangan is in the centre

Releasing the book, Mr Madhavan Nair said that the space based remote sensing for resources monitoring and management is one of the primary objectives of the Indian Space Programme and ISRO has been promoting this technology for various applications — agriculture, forestry, water resources, urban planning, waste land mapping, among many others. He recalled that the very second satellite of India, Bhaskara-I, was devoted to conducting experimental remote sensing and India was one of the earliest to set up a Data Reception Station at Hyderabad to receive data from US Landsat in 1978. “India has come a long way since then” he said and added that Indian Remote Sensing Satellite system was commissioned with the launch of IRS-IA in 1988.
In the 90s, ISRO launched world’s best civilian remote sensing satellites, IRS-1C and IRS-1D, an exclusive ocean remote sensing satellite, IRS-P4, and recently a Technology Experiment Satellite, TES, that can provide a spatial resolution of 1 metre. He further added that the follow-on satellite, RESOURCESAT-1, was getting ready for launch by PSLV in October (since launched successfully) and the development of CARTOSAT-I for mapping application has reached an advanced stage. He also announced that the government had recently approved the development of a Radar Imaging Satellite, RISAT, enabling India to acquire capability for imaging during night as well as under cloudy conditions. India has made inroads in marketing data from its remote sensing satellites worldwide through a dozen ground stations.