ISRO Launched Satellite HySIS | 29 Nov 2018

ISRO launched rocket PSLV-C43 carrying India’s earth observation satellite Hyperspectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS) and 30 co-passenger satellites from Sriharikota on November 29.

• The co-passengers of HySIS include one micro and 29 nano satellites from eight different countries.
• The satellite have been projected into a polar sun-synchronous orbit.
• HysIS is ISRO's first full-scale working satellite with Hyper-spectral imaging capability.
• The space agency tested hyperspectral imaging technology in April 2008, a small 83-kg demonstration microsatellite called IMS-1 (Indian Mini Satellite-1) was launched as a secondary passenger with Cartosat-2A.
• In October, 2008, it put a HySI or Hyperspectral Imager on the Chandrayaan-1 and used it to scan Moon's surface for minerals.

Significance of HySIS

• The primary goal of HySIS is to study the Earth’s surface in visible, near-infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
• Hyperspectral imaging satellite can see in 55 spectral or colour bands from 630 km above ground.
• ‘Hyspex’ imaging allows distinct identification of objects, materials or processes on Earth by reading the spectrum for each pixel of a scene from space.
• It can be highly useful in marking out a suspect object or person and separate it from the background. This could aid in detecting transborder or other stealthy movements.
• It can be used for a range of activities from monitoring the atmospheric activity and climate change, studies of Earth’s magnetic field, agriculture, forestry, water management, coastal patterns, looking for oil and minerals all the way up to military surveillance.