The Hindu : National : ISRO, French centre sign pact

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Saturday, Nov 13, 2004

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National

ISRO, French centre sign pact

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, NOV. 12. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the French National Space Centre (CNES) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to proceed with the development and implementation of a joint atmospheric satellite mission, Megha-Tropiques.

G. Madhavan Nair, ISRO's Chairman, and Yannick d'Escatha, CNES' president, signed the MoU at Antariksh Bhavan, ISRO's headquarters here, an ISRO release said today. The MoU outlined the arrangements for the development of the satellite, its launch, operations in orbit and utilisation of the scientific data obtained from the satellite.

Megha-Tropiques (Megha for cloud in Sanskrit and Tropiques for tropics in French) was meant for investigating the contribution of the water cycle in the tropical atmosphere to climate dynamics. The satellite would carry three scientific instruments — a Multi-frequency Microwave Scanning Radiometer (MADRAS), a Multi-channel Microwave Instrument (SAPHIR) and a Multi-channel Instrument (SCARAB).

MADRAS would be developed jointly by ISRO and CNES for providing information on rain above the oceans, integrated water vapour content in the atmosphere, liquid water in clouds, convective rain over land and sea. SAPHIR and SCARAB would be developed by CNES for providing vertical humidity profile in the atmosphere and for providing data on the earth's radiation budget respectively.

ISRO would build the Megha-Tropiques spacecraft, which will be similar to the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites, and launch it using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The satellite will be placed in an 867 km high orbit at an inclination of 20 degrees with respect to the equatorial plane.

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