Oceansat-2 ground station inaugurated in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: A state-of-the-art Oceansat-2 ground station (data reception and processing system) was inaugurated today by the Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Vilasrao Deshmukh at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (Incois) here.

The Department of Space and Incois established the ground station to receive and process data from Ocean Colour Monitor on-board the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite Oceansat-2 in real time.

The Oceansat-2 ground station, fitted with a 7.5 m diameter antenna, could cover an area of 5,000 km diameter circle, covering the Bay of Bengal on the east and the Arabian sea on the west, a note issued by Incois on the occasion said.

The ground station consists of various sub-systems like antenna and feed system, radio frequency and tracking, base band, automation, modulation and de-modulation systems, direct archival and quick-look browsing and Oceansat data production generation system.

Incois said, the 7.5 meter diameter antenna system at the new ground station could also be used to receive data from satellites launched by ISRO in the future study of oceans.

The chlorophyll data received from OCM at the ground station would be integrated with Sea Surface Temperature from NOAA satellites for providing the Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) advisory services.

The PFZ advisories generated by Incois using Oceansat-2 data advise fishermen on the optimal locations for fishing.