About ISRO Recent Events ISRO Centres Programmes Decade Plan Space Science International Sponsored Research Space Services Commercial Training Facilities Resources Contact Us   Signing of Statement of Intent on Indo-French Satellite MEGHA TROPIQUES ISRO Satellite Centre, Airport Road, Bangalore Background Material to Press Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the French Space Agency (CNES) are signing a Statement of Intent for the design, development and launch of an Atmospheric Research Satellite, MEGHA TROPIQUES. The Statement of Intent will be signed at 5.30 pm on November 21, 1999 at ISRO Satellite Centre, Airport Road, Bangalore in the presence of French Minister for Education and Research Mr Claude Allegre and Indian Minister of State for Space Mrs Vasundhra Raje. Indian scientists involved in atmospheric research, have been considering for sometime, development of a scientific satellite for better understanding of the climate, studying the atmosphere and oceanic activities with emphasis on the regions around the Indian subcontinent. Such studies could greatly help in medium range and long range weather forecasting techniques and more accurate climate modeling. It was also felt by the scientists that the data obtained from such a satellite should complement and supplement the data from other existing and planned future satellites. In France also, several scientific teams have been working on a possible satellite mission, TROPIQUES, that was aimed at measuring climate related parameters, with emphasis on high temporal sampling of tropical regions of the globe. The present proposal for the Indo-French MEGHA TROPIQUES Satellite mission is the result of the exchange of views between the Indian and the French scientific community and recognises the fact that the data from the proposed satellite will be for mutual benefit. The MEGHA TROPIQUES mission is configured around the French satellite bus Proteus and will be launched using ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) sometime during 2005. It is well know that the tropical region is the domain of squall lines and cyclones and is characterised by large intra-seasonal, inter-seasonal and inter-annual variations that have lead to several catastrophic events such as droughts and floods. Changes in energy and water budget of the land-ocean-atmosphere systems in the tropics influences the global climate to a great extent. The exchange of energy in the inter-tropical zone influences the climate of the rest of the planet. These systems interact with the general circulation of the atmosphere in ways that are yet to be fully understood and hence reducing the reliability in the prediction of the weather and climate events. Geostationary satellites like INSAT provide a good space time sampling of the cloud cover while polar orbiting satellites with microwave instrument could retrieve information on water vapour profiles, deep cloud cover and precipitation. But the Polar satellites (which fly in south-north-south-direction) cannot provide continuous sampling of the tropical region. The proposed MEGHA TROPIQUES which will be placed in an inclined orbit of 22 degree can provide optimally the data on the tropical regions, thus, complementing and supplementing the data obtained from the Geostationary and Polar satellites. The MEGHA TROPIQUES (Megha meaning cloud in Sanskrit and Tropiques in French meaning Tropics) is primarily a scientific mission to study the atmospheric activity in the tropical region. The satellite will weigh about 500 kg and will orbit the earth at an altitude of 817 km. The orbit will be inclined at 22 degree with respect to the equator. It will carry three payloads - Microwave Analysis and Detection of Rain and Atmospheric Systems (MADRAS) which is a microwave imaging radiometer, - a Scanner for Radiation Budget (ScaRaB) and - an atmospheric humidity profiler (SAPHIR). The data from the satellite will help in understanding the convective system that influences the tropical weather and climate. It is important to note that all these three payloads do not depend on the availability of sunlight on the earth for their operations unlike the sensors operating in the visible spectral bands. Hence the data from these instruments could be collected for longer time and hence with a much better repetitivity. The data from the MEGHA TROPIQUES will be received by the ground stations both in India and France. A recorder on board the satellite will allow collection of data around the globe. The data obtained from the MEGHA TROPIQUES will be shared by the scientists in India and France for scientific studies. Thus it is conceived to optimally use scientific and technical capabilities of both India and France. ISRO and CNES have a long standing collaboration and several joint research projects have been undertaken by the agencies. Several scientists of both the agencies have visited each others' facilities and exchanged views. Several meteorological payloads, developed by CNES, have been flown by Indian sounding rockets from Thumba and Sriharikota. The signing of the Statement of Intent by ISRO and CNES for the design, development and launch of MEGHA TROPIQUES is another important milestone in the Indo-French cooperation in the scientific field.