METSAT

Indian earth weather satellite. One launch, 2002.09.12. METSAT was an Indian (ISRO) meteorological, geostationary satellite designed to simultaneously obtain atmospheric cloud cover, water vapor, and temperature data.

The triaxially-stabilized, 1,060-kg (including 560 kg of propellant), 550-W satellite carried a VHRR (Very High Resolution Radiometer) scanning radiometer for three-band images (visible, thermal infrared, and water vapor infrared band) each at a spatial resolution of 2 km x 2 km. It carried a Data Relay Transponder (DRT) to provide data from fixed/mobile ground-level weather platforms.

METSAT was the first exclusive meteorological satellite built by ISRO. Prior Indian meteorological instruments had been combined with telecommunication and television payloads in the INSAT series. METSAT was a precursor for a future INSAT system that was to have separate satellites for meteorology and telecommunications. This would allow greater capabilities in future dedicated INSAT communications satellites. METSAT 's DRT would relay the data sent by earth platforms to the Meteorological Data Utilization Centre at New Delhi. Such platforms were installed all over India.