Earth Observation Programme

The Indian Remote Sensing satellite (IRS) programme commissioned with the launch of IRS-1A in 1988 presently includes twelve satellites that continue to provide imageries in a variety of spatial resolutions from better than one metre ranging up to 500 metres. The data is used for several applications covering agriculture, water resources, urban development, mineral prospecting, environment, forestry, drought and flood forecasting, ocean resources and disaster management.

The Indian Remote Sensing satellite system has one of the largest constellations of remote sensing satellites in operation in the world today. The IRS series of satellites provide data in a variety of spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions which are effectively used for resource management purposes.

Spaceborne, geospatial data is an important input for creating GIS databases. The IRS program has not only made available this data but also has provided the initial impetus, know-how to industry in the fields of data processing hardware and software and GIS.

Now, the geospatial industry in India is well developed and forms an important source of data in various decision making process by various government departments like defence, urban planning, land records, natural resources, utilities and others.