32 Earth Observation Sensors to provide information about environment, disasters etc: Govt

India has 32 earth observation sensors with advanced capabilities, currently in orbit, providing space-based information. The Minister of State for Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space, Jitendra Singh, said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on September 17.

"Five earth observation satellites and five communication payloads were realized since January 2018," Singh said.

According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), The data from Earth Observation Satellites are used for several applications covering agriculture, water resources, urban planning, rural development, mineral prospecting, environment, forestry, ocean resources, and disaster management.

Singh said that information support was provided for all the major disaster events viz. floods, cyclones, and forest fires occurred since January 2020.

"About 2,51,000 value-added data products were disseminated to users since April 2020. The value-added products comprise of geophysical & remote sensing data products derived using the data from meteorological, oceanographic, and land remote sensing satellites," Singh said.

He added, "The total number of satellites launched by ISRO that are no longer operational (life ended) and currently in orbit are 47."