What is TRISHNA Mission?

Sept. 20, 2024

Recently, the President of the French Space Agency, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), in an event spoke on a wide range of topics from celebrating 60 years of French-India space cooperation to the Gaganyaan and the TRISHNA missions.

About TRISHNA Mission:

  • The Thermal Infrared Imaging Satellite for High-resolution Natural Resource Assessment (TRISHNA) mission a collaborative endeavor between the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) the French Space Agency CNES.
  • Objectives
    • It is engineered to deliver high spatial and temporal resolution observations of Earth's surface temperature, vegetation health, and water cycle dynamics.
    • It will also help in a comprehensive assessment of urban heat islands, detection of thermal anomalies linked to volcanic activity and geothermal resources, and precise monitoring of snow-melt runoff and glacier dynamics.
    • The mission will also provide valuable data on aerosol optical depth, atmospheric water vapor, and cloud cover.
  • Payloads: TRISHNA satellite is equipped with two primary payloads.
    • The Thermal Infra-Red (TIR) Payload: It is provided by CNES, features a four-channel long-wave infrared imaging sensor capable of high-resolution surface temperature and emissivity mapping.
    • The Visible - Near Infra-Red - Short Wave Infra-Red (VNIR-SWIR) payload: It is developed by ISRO, includes seven spectral bands designed for detailed mapping of surface reflectance of VSWIR bands for generating important biophysical and radiation budget variables.
    • The variables retrieved from the combination of payload data would help in solving surface energy balance to estimate surface heat fluxes.
  • The satellite will operate in a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 761 km, with a local time of 12:30 PM at the equator.
  • This orbit will provide a spatial resolution of 57 meters for land and coastal areas and 1 km for oceanic and polar regions. The mission is designed for a 5-year operational life.