Cartosat-2B starts sending back high quality images

India's advanced remote sensing satellite Cartosat-2B, which was launched by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C15) into a polar sun-synchronous orbit, has started sending back images of high quality.

An image of the Sangam at Allahabad sent by CARTOSAT-2B.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a press release that the satellite was working satisfactorily.

"The initial phase of operations of thesatellite has been successfully completed. The camera has been switched on, and images of high quality are being received," the release added.

The 694 kg Cartosat was launched along with four other auxiliary payloads by PSLV-C15.

Built by ISRO, it is India's 17th remote sensing satellite. It is mainly intended to augment remote sensing data serices to the users of multiple spot scene imagery with 0.8 metre spatial resolution and 9.6 km swath in the panchromatic band.

ISRO sources said Cartosat-2B carries a panchromatic camera similar to that of its two predecessors - Cartosat 2 and Cartosat 2A. It also carries a solid state recorder with a capacity of 64 giga bits to store the images taken by its camera which can be read out later to the ground stations.

They said the imagery sent by the satellite would be useful for village level/cadastral level resources assessment and mapping, detailed urban and infrastructure planning and development, transportation system planning, preparation of large-scale cartographic maps, preparation of micro watershed development plans and monitoring of developmental works at village/cadastral level.

Besides, the imagery can also be used for the preparation of detailed forest maps, tree volume estimation, crop inventory, town/village settlement mapping, canal alignment, rural connectivity assessment, coastal landform/landuse and coral/mangrove mapping and monitoring of mining activities, the sources added.

NNN