BENGALURU: The country’s latest meteorological satellite, INSAT-3DS has captured the Earth in new tints and shows the planet in dynamic tints and colours. In the photos, India’s outline is clearly visible in mesmerising colours across the spectrum. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in collaboration with the Ministry of Earth Sciences had launched the spacecraft on February 17, 2024. After several orbit-raising operations, the satellite reached the designated geostationary slot or In Orbit Testing (IOT) on February 28, 2024.

ISRO informed that the satellite initiated Earth imaging operations and the first set of images by the meteorological payloads (6-channel Imager and 19-channel Sounder) was captured on March 7. “The payload parameters are found to be nominal, complying with payload specifications. Thus, all the payloads of INSAT-3DS have been tested to perform nominally,” the space agency said in a statement.

The 6-channel imager equipment will capture images of the Earth’s surface and atmosphere across multiple spectral channels or wavelengths. These will help scientists gather crucial data on various atmospheric and surface phenomena, such as clouds, aerosols, land surface temperature, vegetation health, and water vapour distribution. Meanwhile, the 9-channel sounder is also capturing radiation emitted by the Earth’s atmosphere such as water vapour, ozone, carbon dioxide, and other gases.

The space agency stated, “These payloads generate over 40 geophysical data products such as sea surface temperature, rainfall (precipitation) products, land surface temperature, fog intensity, outgoing longwave radiation, atmospheric motion vectors, high-resolution winds, upper tropospheric humidity, cloud properties, smoke, fire, mean surface pressure, temperature profiles, water vapour profiles, surface skin temperature, total ozone among others for the user community.”