ISRO launches ‘HySIS’ Satellite to monitor Agriculture, Defense Sector

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on 29 November 2018 launched India’s very first hyperspectral imaging satellite or HySIS, an advanced earth observation satellite along with 30 foreign satellites.

According to reports, in its 112-minute-long mission, PSLV C43 will first deliver country’s primary satellite into the polar sun-synchronous orbit at an elevation of 630 km and then descend to release 30 international co-passengers at 504 km altitude in two batches. The 30 commercial satellites, which include 1 micro and 29 nano-satellites are from 8 countries.

The 380kg HySIS will be used for a variety of applications including agriculture, forestry, geology, soil survey, coastal zones, environmental studies, inland water studies and detection of pollution from industries. As it is an earth observation satellite, it will also be used for military surveillance purpose. Moreover, hyperspectral imaging combines the power of digital imaging as well as spectroscopy.

It gathers and processes information from the electromagnetic spectrum and then enables different identification of objects, material or processes on the Earth by reading the spectrum for each pixel of a scene from the space.

Hyperspectral that can observe in 55 spectral or colour bands from 630 km above the earth carries 2 payloads - one to capture pictures in the visible near-infrared (VNIR) range of light spectrum and another in shortwave infrared (SWIR) range. The satellite will provide earth observation service for five years i.e. till 2023.

The optical imaging detector array chip in the satellite has been designed by ISRO’S Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre and manufactured by Semi-Conductor Laboratory, Chandigarh.