India's remote sensing program was developed with the idea of applying space technologies for the benefit of humankind and the development of the country. The program involved the development of three principal capabilities. The first was to design, build and launch satellites to a Sun-synchronous orbit. The second was to establish and operate ground stations for spacecraft control, data transfer along with data processing and archival. The third was to use the data obtained for various applications on the ground.
India demonstrated the ability of remote sensing for societal application by detecting coconut root-wilt disease from a helicopter mounted multispectral camera in 1970. This was followed by flying two experimental satellites, Bhaskara-1 in 1979 and Bhaskara-2 in 1981. These satellites carried optical and microwave payloads.
India's remote sensing programme under ISRO started off in 1988 with the IRS-1A, the first of the series of indigenous state-of-art operating remote sensing satellites, which was successfully launched into a polar Sun-synchronous orbit on March 17, 1988, from the Soviet Cosmodrome at Baikonur.
It has sensors like LISS-I which had a spatial resolution of with a swath of on ground. LISS-II had two separate imaging sensors, LISS-II A and LISS-II B, with spatial resolution of each and mounted on the spacecraft in such a way to provide a composite swath of on ground. These tools quickly enabled India to map, monitor and manage its natural resources at various spatial resolutions. The operational availability of data products to the user organisations further strengthened the relevance of remote sensing applications and management in the country.
IRS System
Following the successful demonstration flights of Bhaskara-1 and Bhaskara-2 satellites launched in 1979 and 1981, respectively, India began to develop the indigenous Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite program to support the national economy in the areas of agriculture, water resources, forestry and ecology, geology, water sheds, marine fisheries and coastal management.
Towards this end, India had established the National Natural Resources Management System (NNRMS) for which the Department of Space (DOS) is the nodal agency, providing operational remote sensing data services. Data from the IRS satellites is received and disseminated by several countries all over the world. With the advent of high-resolution satellites, new applications in the areas of urban sprawl, infrastructure planning and other large scale applications for mapping have been initiated.
The IRS system is the largest constellation of remote sensing satellites for civilian use in operation today in the world, with 11 operational satellites. All these are placed in polar Sun-synchronous orbit and provide data in a variety of spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions. Indian Remote Sensing Programme completed its 25 years of successful operations on March 17, 2013.
IRS data applications
Data from Indian Remote Sensing satellites are used for various applications of resources survey and management under the National Natural Resources Management System (NNRMS). Following is the list of those applications:
Space Based Inputs for Decentralized Planning (SIS-DP) National Urban Information System (NUIS) ISRO Disaster Management Support Programme (ISRO-DMSP) Biodiversity characterizations at landscape level - http://bis.iirs.gov.in Preharvest crop area and production estimation of major crops. Drought monitoring and assessment based on vegetation condition. Flood risk zone mapping and flood damage assessment. Hydro-geomorphological maps for locating underground water resources for drilling well. Irrigation command area status monitoring Snow-melt run-off estimates for planning water use in down stream projects Land use and land cover mapping Urban planning Forest survey Wetland mapping Environmental impact analysis Mineral prospecting Coastal studies Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development (initiated in 1992) for generating locale-specific prescriptions for integrated land and water resources development in 174 districts. North Eastern District Resources Plan (NEDRP)
IRS launch log
The initial versions are composed of the 1 (A, B, C, D). The later versions are named based on their area of application, including OceanSat, CartoSat, ResourceSat. Some of the satellites have alternate designations based on the launch number and vehicle (P series for PSLV). From 2020, the name was changed to the generic EOS, which stands for Earth Observation Satellite.
Serial No. Satellite Date of Launch Launch Vehicle Status1IRS-1A17 March 1988Vostok, USSRMission Completed2IRS-1B29 August 1991Vostok, USSRMission Completed3IRS-P1 (also IE)20 September 1993PSLV-D1Launch failure4IRS-P215 October 1994PSLV-D2Mission Completed5IRS-1C28 December 1995Molniya, RussiaMission Completed6IRS-P321 March 1996PSLV-D3Mission Completed7IRS 1D29 September 1997PSLV-C1Mission Completed8IRS-P4 (Oceansat-1)27 May 1999PSLV-C2Mission Completed9Technology Experiment Satellite (TES)22 October 2001PSLV-C3Mission Completed10IRS P6 (Resourcesat-1)17 October 2003PSLV-C5Mission Completed11IRS P5 (Cartosat 1)5 May 2005PSLV-C6Mission Completed12IRS P7 (Cartosat 2) 10 January 2007PSLV-C7Mission Completed13Cartosat 2A28 April 2008PSLV-C9In Service14IMS 128 April 2008PSLV-C9Mission Completed15RISAT-220 April 2009PSLV-C12In Service16Oceansat-223 September 2009PSLV-C14In Service17Cartosat-2B12 July 2010PSLV-C15In Service18Resourcesat-220 April 2011PSLV-C16 In Service19Megha-Tropiques12 October 2011PSLV-C18 Mission Completed20RISAT-126 April 2012PSLV-C19 Mission Completed21SARAL25 February 2013PSLV-C20 In Service22Cartosat-2C22 June 2016PSLV-C34In Service23ScatSat-126 September 2016PSLV-C35In Service24Resourcesat-2A7 December 2016PSLV-C36In Service25Cartosat-2D15 February 2017PSLV-C37 In Service26Cartosat-2E23 June 2017PSLV-C38In Service27Cartosat-2F12 January 2018PSLV-C40In Service28RISAT-2B22 May 2019PSLV-C46In Service29Cartosat-327 November 2019PSLV-C47In Service30RISAT-2BR111 December 2019PSLV-C48In Service31EOS-1 (RISAT-2BR2)7 November 2020PSLV-C49In Service32EOS-3 (GISAT-1)12 August 2021GSLV-F10Launch failure33EOS-4 (RISAT-1A)14 February 2022PSLV-C52In Service34EOS–02 (Microsat-2A)7 August 2022SSLV-D1Launch failure35EOS-6 (Oceansat-3)26 November 2022PSLV-C54In Service36EOS–07 (Microsat-2B)10 February 2023SSLV-D2In Service37EOS–08 (Microsat-2C)16 August 2024SSLV-D3In Service38EOS-09 (RISAT-1B)18 May 2025PSLV-C61Launch failure 39EOS-N112 January 2026PSLV-C62Launch failure 40EOS–05 (GISAT-1A)4 September 2026GSLV Mk II-F17In ServiceUpcoming Missions41EOS-10January 2026PSLV-N1Planned Oceansat-3AQ1 2026PSLV-C63Planned RISAT-2A2026 (TBD)PSLV-XLPlanned Cartosat-3A2026 (TBD)PSLV-XLPlanned Cartosat-3B2026 (TBD)PSLV-XLPlanned Resourcesat-32027 (TBD)PSLV-XLPlanned Resourcesat-3A2027 (TBD)PSLV-XLPlanned Resourcesat-3B2027 (TBD)PSLV-XLPlanned Resourcesat-3S2027 (TBD)PSLV-XLPlanned Resourcesat-3SA2027 (TBD)PSLV-XLPlanned GISAT-2 2027 (TBD) Planned Oceansat-4 2029 (TBD) PSLVPlanned Resourcesat-4 2030 (TBD)PSLVPlanned Cartosat-4 2031 (TBD) PSLVPlanned
IRS Data Availability Data from IRS is available to its users through NRSC Data Centre and also through Bhuvan Geoportal of ISRO. NRSC data center provides data through its purchase process, while Bhuvan Geoportal provides data in free and open domain.
Capacity Building for IRS and Other Remote Sensing Data The capacity building programme of ISRO for IRS and other remote sensing applications is through Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) Dehradun and UN affiliated Center of Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP) Center located at Dehradun of Uttrakhand State in India.
See also List of Indian satellites Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) Indian National Satellite System (INSAT) GSAT
References