Indian Remote sensing Satellites Overview

IRS IC & 1D

Mission

The Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS–1C) was successfully launched into polar orbit on
December 28, 1995 by a Russian launch vehicle. Its payload was activated in the first week
of January 1996. This satellite was followed by a similar one that was successfully launched
into polar orbit on September 29, 1997 by a PSLV launch vehicle. Its payload was activated
in mid-October 1997.

Orbit

The primary objective of IRS satellites is to provide systematic and repetitive acquisition of
data of the Earth’s surface under nearly constant illumination conditions. IRS–1C operates in
a circular, sun-synchronous, near polar orbit with an inclination of 98.69°, at an altitude of
817 km in the descending node. The satellite takes 101.35 minutes to complete one
revolution around the earth and completes about 14 orbits per day. The entire earth is
covered by 341 orbits during a 24 day cycle. Successive orbits are shifted westward by 2820
km at the equator. IRS-1C and 1D have slightly different orbits (see below) and for this
reason do not have the same reference system.

The mean equatorial crossing time in the descending node is 10.30 a.m. ± 5 minutes. The
orbit adjust system is used to attain the required orbit initially and it is maintained
throughout the mission period. The ground trace pattern is controlled within ± 5 km of the
reference ground trace pattern.

Sensors

Details of the three sensors are given in the Technical Summary table below.
During systematic operational data acquisition the tilt angle of the PAN sensor is set to
either +2° or –2°, approximately. These settings guarantee full coverage of the entire area
within 2 cycles (2*24/25 days).

The WiFS referencing scheme is based on LISS-III scene centres. Due to the large coverage
of each WiFS scene there is an overlap of approximately 85% between adjacent WiFS
passes.

Coverage

Currently there are several receiving stations able to acquire IRS data over many parts of
the world.

Eurimage, thanks to special agreements with SpaceImaging, can distribute data acquired by
all the stations whose receiving cone is marked in red in the map below. For the scenes
acquired by Neustrelitz (Europe coverage, yellow cone), Eurimage has an agreement with
Euromap to sell this data only to Italian customers
LISS-III scenes

IRS-P6

IRS-P6 (RESOURCESAT-1) is intended to not only continue the remote sensing data services
provided by IRS-1C and IRS-1D, both of which have far outlived their designed mission lives,
but also vastly enhance the data quality. The 1360 kg satellite was launched into an 817 km
polar Sun Synchronous Orbit by the eighth flight of India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle
(PSLV-C5). Systematic acquisitions by IRS-P6 began in January 2005.

IRS-P6 carries three cameras similar to those of IRS-1C and IRS-1D but with vastly improved
spatial resolutions.

IRS-P6 also carries a Solid State Recorder with a capacity of 120 Gigabits.

Sensors
LISS-IV (Linear Imaging Self-Scanning Sensor-4)

The LISS-IV multispectral high-resolution camera is the prime instrument of this sensor. LISS-
IV is a three-band push broom camera of LISS-III heritage (with the same VNIR spectral
bands as LISS-3) with a spatial resolution of 5.8 m and a swath of 70 km. The optoelectronic
module uses the three mirror telescope optics (the same as that of the PAN camera of IRS-
1C/1D) and 12,288 (12k) pixels linear array CCDs with each pixel of the size 7 µm x 7 µm.
Three such CCDs are placed in the focal plane of the telescope along with their individual
spectral filters. A prism splits the beam into three imaging fields which are separated in the
along-track direction. The projection of this separation on ground translates into a distance
of 14.2 km between the B2 and B4 image lines. While B3 is looking at nadir, B2 is looking
ahead and B4 looking behind.
LISS-IV can be operated in one of two modes:

• Multi-spectral (MS) mode: Data is collected in 3 bands corresponding to pre-selected

4096 contiguous pixels with a swath width of 23.9 km (selectable from the 70 km
total swath). The 4 k detector strip can be selected anywhere within the 12 k pixels.
• Mono mode: Data from the full 12 k pixels of any single band, corresponding to a
swath of 70 km, can be transmitted. Nominally, Band 3 data are acquired in this
mode.

In addition, LISS-IV features a ±26º cross-track steering capability, permitting a 5-day revisit
cycle.

LISS-III (Linear Imaging Self-Scanning Sensor-3)

A medium-resolution multi-spectral camera, the instrument is identical to the LISS-III on IRS-

1C/1D (lens modules, detectors, and electronics) in the three VNIR bands, each with a
spatial resolution of 23.5 m. The resolution of the SWIR band is now also 23.5 m on a swath
of 140 km. The optics design and the detector of the SWIR band are modified to suit the
required resolution; B5 uses a 6,000 element Indium Gallium Arsenide CCD with a pixel size
of 13 µm. The SWIR CCD is a new device employing a CMOS readout technique for each
pixel, thereby improving noise performance. The VNIR CCD array features 6,000 elements
for each band.

AWiFS (Advanced Wide Field Sensor)

AWiFS is a wide-angle medium resolution (56 m) camera with a swath of 740 km

(FOV=±25º) of WiFS heritage. The pushbroom instrument operates in three spectral bands
which are identical to two VNIR bands (0.62 - 0.68 µm, 0.77 - 0.86 µm) and the SWIR band
(1.55-1.70 µm) of the LISS-III camera. The AWiFS camera is realized using two separate
optoelectronic modules which are tilted by 11.94º from nadir. Each module covers a swath
of 370 km providing a combined swath of 740 km with a side overlap between them. The
wide swath coverage enables AWiFS to provide a five-day repeat capability

IRS P5

The primary objective of Cartosat-1 mission is to provide systematic acquisition of stereo

data or the earth’s surface under nearly constant illumination conditions. The satellite
operates in a circular, sunsynchronous, near polar orbit with an inclination of 97.87 deg, at
an altitude of 618 km. The satellite takes 97.18 minutes to complete one revolution around
the earth and completes about 15 orbits per day.The entire earth is covered by 1867 orbits
during a 126 day cycle. The orbital parameters are summarized in Table 2.4.1. Orbits/cycle
1867 Repeat cycle 126 days Altitude 618 km Semi-major axis 6996.132 km Inclination 97.87
deg Eccentricity 0.001
Period 97.18 minutes Distance between adjacent traces 21.46 km Distance between
successive
ground tracks 2704.6 km Ground track velocity 6.94 km/sec The mean equatorial crossing
time at descending node is 10:30 a.m. ± 5 minutes. The orbit adjust system is used to attain
the required orbit initially and it is maintained throughout the mission period.

The ground trace pattern is controlled within ±1 km of the reference ground trace pattern.
The two cameras collect data with different swaths. The Fore camera which is canted at +26
deg in the along track direction provides a swath of 30 km and the Aft camera which is
canted at –5 deg in the along track direction provides a swath of 26.8 km. Apart from this,
different pitch biases of the spacecraft like +5 , -21 and -10.5 deg are planned, which
provide different combination of canting. Details of overlap and side lap between scenes of a
sensor are given in Table 2.4.2. The successive orbits are shifted westward by 2704.6 km at
the equator. Figure 2.4.1 shows a typical ground trace of the orbits. The entire globe is
covered in 1867 orbits between 81 degrees North and 81degrees South latitudes during the
126 day cycle.

As mentioned earlier the Fore camera and Aft camera are canted with +26 deg and –5 deg
respectively. The purpose of the canting is to obtain the along track stereo image of the
terrain. This means that whatever terrain is imaged by the Fore camera is to be imaged by
Aft camera also, but with different tilt. Since Aft camera lags behind the Fore camera, by the
time the Aft camera sees the same latitude, the Earth rotation causes longitudinal shift and
it is not possible to image the same terrain. This problem is circumvented by giving
appropriate yaw rotation to the spacecraft which is a function of latitude, roll rotation and
pitch bias.

Overlap and side lap between the scenes

 Ground Trace Pattern

Scene layout:

The Aft camera scene lies within the Fore camera scene. The corners are numbered for
Fore camera scene as shown in the figure. Same pattern of marking the corners is followed
for Aft camera scene also. Though the swath of Fore camera scene is more than Aft camera
scene, the length is considered to be the same for both the scenes. There is an overlap of
1.3 km between adjacent stereo scenes along a path. Also there is a sidelap of 5.3 km
between Aft camera scenes of adjacent paths at equator. The sidelap is minimum at
equator. As we move away from the equator, the sidelap increases because the paths come
closer to each other as we move towards the pole. Typically, at 40 degrees latitude the
sidelap is around 49% of the swath. More details about the referencing scheme
Revisit capability :
Because of the agility of the spacecraft to be rotated about the three axes, a given area can
be viewed more than once within one cycle. Figure below shows a region on path 1 at
equator. Also are shown, the adjacent paths on either side that can view the given region
with the roll angle between +10 deg and –23deg. The day number on which the adjacent
paths occur relative to the central path is also provided. From the figure it can also be seen
that the maximum wait period to view an area is 11 days. As we go away from equator,
paths become closer to each other. Hence, more number of paths can be used to view a
given region at high latitudes.
 Scene Layout of Stereo Scene

Coverage due to roll tilt capability