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Radar Imaging Spacecraft RISAT

India has begun its unmanned RISAT-2 spacecraft based radar imaging program with the April 20, 2009 launch of a copy of the all-weather Israeli radar imaging surveillance program satellite TecSAR they had purchased for $200 million. This is to be utilized to address defense border security issues for India. This RISAT-2 and the new in development dedicated Military Naval Satellite as well as in development RECSAT for India hearld a new era for India.

Defence News reported in November 2010 that "The indigenous $25-million Communication-Centric Intelligence Satellite (CCI-Sat) which is being developed by the Defense Electronics and Research Laboratory under the Defense Research and Development Organization, will be launched and fully operational by 2014. It will act as a test bed for anti-satellite weapon technology. CCI-Sat, which also has SAR, has imaging and communication functions besides surveillance. The satellite will orbit Earth at 500 km. and cover hostile regions in the area by passing on surveillance data to intelligence agencies."

This new synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging spacecraft unlike the other daylight or infrared imaging spacecraft can see through all weather conditions as well as any deceptive measures taken by a would be adversary. It full capabilities are not fully known but are believed to be even greater than publicly understood. The 300 kilogram spacecraft designed and built by the Israeli Aerospace Industries consists of a six & four sided main satellite bus for its power and instrumentation on which is mounted two, two panel solar arrays and a 4.572 meter diameter bleached white gold mesh deployable radar gimbals mounted SAR dish with a fine focus capability feed array. The main body of the spacecraft below the dish consists of a six sided “payload module”, followed by the box shaped four sides “bus module” with “star tracker navigation equipment” and “propulsion RCS systems”. It has a three year design life and was placed in a near circular 550 kilometer earth orbit with a 41 degree inclination by the ISRO Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.

 

The much awaited Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT-1), with its C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload, operating at 5.35 GHz in multi-polarisation and multi-resolution mode (ScanSAR, Strip and Spot modes), is providing images with coarse, fine and high spatial resolutions to the user community. It was launched by PSLV-C19 on April 26, 2012 and placed in the 536 km sun synchronous circular orbit. The development of complex technologies pertaining to phased array antenna has been one of the features of this satellite. SAR, being an active remote sensing instrument, operates in the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum, providing high quality images and also has the unique capability of imaging day and night, and in all weather conditions, including fog and haze. These unique characteristics of C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar enable applications in agriculture, particularly paddy monitoring in kharif season and management of natural disasters like flood and cyclone.

Starting 2019 with the liftoff of two surveillance satellites for Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) geared up to launch a slew of advanced militarysatellites this year that will enhance surveillance capabilities of security forces and boost the country’s“strategic assets in space. Isro is scheduled to launch four new series Risat satellites and an advanced Cartosat-3 satellite. The images from old Risat-series satellites were used to plan the surgical strike in 2016 and the air strikeon a Jaish camp in Pakistan’s Balakot in 2019. Risat-2BR1 will be launched in July, Risat-2BR2 in October and Risat-1A in November. Risat-2B series is a lighter version of the spy satellite with an X-band synethic aperture radar that can penetrate clouds and zoom up to a resolution of 1 meter.