Events & Issues

New Delhi, 6 January 2010

Climate Change Watch

INDIA TO DEPLOY SATELLITES

By Radhakrishna Rao

In its bid to gather real time, reliable data on multitudes of factors responsible for climate change, India will launch two exclusive climate research satellites into the polar orbit. These satellites will make India one of the few countries in the world to have such an advanced, dedicated space systems to study the dynamics of global climate change. The first satellite, planned to be launched sometime this year would be a 50-kg mini space platform designed to facilitate the measurement aerosols in the atmosphere. This satellite will be built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in tie-up with the Space Flight Laboratory at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Aerospace Studies in Canada.

The second satellite to be launched in 2001 would be a full-fledged remote sensing space platform to monitor the emissions of greenhouses gases including carbon dioxide and methane. The use of satellite technology will also demonstrate that India is serious about global warming, according to the pro-active Union Minister for Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh.

The launching of the satellites can be viewed as a step in the right direction, given the fact that the Copenhagen climate change conference held in December last could not achieve a breakthrough in arriving at a consensus on the climate deal. Most of the developing countries described the proposal on emission cuts as “one sided and suicidal”. India along with China stoutly opposed the US-sponsored climate deal that required the developing nations to commit themselves to carbon dioxide emission cuts.

The Environment ministry has repeatedly maintained that India cannot afford to depend on the data—on the dynamics of climate changes over the Indian sub-continent—from western countries. Asserts Ramesh: “We cannot depend on others to tell what is happening in our country.” More so when in some cases, data compiled by western countries has been biased. For example, the analysis of the melting of the Himalayan glaciers was based on changes in Arctic glaciers.

According to R.R.Navalgund, Director of the Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre (SAC) of ISRO, satellite data analysis shows the retreat of Gangotri glaciers in the Himalayas by 1.5-km over the past three decades. But he points out that it is really difficult to conclude whether the glacier retreat is linked to the climate change.

Interestingly, India’s full-fledged ocean watch satellite Oceansat-II launched in September last by means of the four-stage space workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), in addition to monitoring the melting of the polar ice caps, would help in evaluating the productivity of the oceans. And, this is particularly useful in measuring the carbon sink in the oceans.

Oceansat-II, which replaced the Oceansat-1, a similar Indian Ocean watch satellite launched in 1999, is the 16^th Indian remote sensing satellite. It carries three payloads: Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM), a Ku band Pencil Beam Scatterometer and a radio Occultation sounder for Atmospheric Studies (ROSA) contributed by the Italian Space Agency.

The OCM and Scatterometer were fully designed and developed by SAC. The former is capable of imaging plant life in oceans in addition to detecting algal blooms, which are harmful to the fish schools in the oceanic waters. Therefore, with the help of data being made available by OCM, it would be possible to determine the potential fishing zones in the oceanic waters around India.

The Italian ROSA is basically a GPS receiver which can easily determine the position of ships and vessels moving in the ocean water using radio signals. Importantly, the Scatterometer, equipped with one-metre diameter antenna is capable of measuring sea surface winds which can provide a pointer to the climatic changes and monitoring the origin of cyclones.

Similarly, the Indo-French climate research satellite Megha Tropiques, slated for launch sometime this year, would help shed new light on the climatic dynamics of the tropical regions. Not to be left behind the 83-kg, mini remote sensing satellite IMS-I launched by ISRO in 2008 continues to provide data on the changes affecting the “atmosphere and environment”.

Additionally, Prof J Srinivasan of the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore has stressed the point that ISRO must use radars on satellites to measure rainfall patterns and derive long-term models of monsoon forecasting. As it is, the Indian space agency has already hinted at a plan to expand its network of ground stations and towers in forest areas to monitor the absorption of the carbon sink.

On another front, and as part of the plan to strengthen the mechanism for the primary monitoring of climate related changes, the Ministry of Environment and Forests will be joining hands with ISRO to set up a National Institute for Climate and Environmental Sciences (NICE) with an initial investment of Rs.400-million. NICE would take up long term projects to study the impact of climate changes on aspects such as agriculture and water. The Ministry’s aim is to build a world-class institute which will be a data hub on all issues relating to climate change. 

In fact, the NICE is a huge step forward in creating the nucleus for long term research. According to plans it will be located in Bangalore, and will be initially supported by around 100 scientists who will study the impact of climate change and green house gases emissions. In particular, NICE, using satellite technology, will undertake an exercise to monitor the health of the Himalayan glaciers which feed most of the rivers flowing into the plains of North India.

The three-year programme would monitor the health of the Himalayan glaciers which is of great importance to the country’s water security.  Further into the future, NICE will measure the impact of greenhouse emissions on forests in the Western Ghats in Karnataka and Kerala, the North East, Uttarakhand and parts of Central India.

More importantly, the Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA), brought into being by the involvement of 127 research bodies in India will join hands with NICE and ISRO to build India’s” monitoring, measuring and modelling “capabilities in the critical area of climate changes. It will study the effect of the climate change on the national economy and suggest ways and means to combat it.

In the ultimate analysis, India is rightly keen on making an original and significant contribution to the research on climate change with a view to avert the negative fall out of global warming.—INFA

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