Article Posted on : - Aug 26, 2010

SARAL-Altika satellite.

BANGALORE (BNS): With ocean scientists reporting a nine mm rise in sea levels in four years, India in collaboration with the French National Space Agency will launch an exclusive satellite later this year to study the changes in the environment.

The satellite, called SARAl, will carry an altimeter (AltiKa) for studying the sea surface heights and an ARGOS payload, which is a satellite-based data collection platform.

SARAL-AltiKa will have two independent payloads – ARGOS-3 and Altika – whose objective would be to promote the study of environment from space.

The satellite would be useful for ocean scientists in studying the sea state, light rainfall climatalogy, mean sea level and coastal altimetry.