|
|
Raju Garudachar |
|
|
|
Time:
Tuesday, 1 April 2014
1405 - 1425
Spaceborne Remote Sensing Techniques for Disaster Monitoring: Microwave Sensors |
Graduated in BE (Electronics) from Bangalore University, in
1970, ME (Electronics) from BITS-Pilani, in 1972; obtained
PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering (Radar
Systems) from the University of Kansas, USA, in 1989.
He worked for 40 years in ISRO from 1972 to 2012. His last
assignment in ISRO was as PROJECT DIRECTOR, MEGHA-TROPIQUES,
an Indo-French collaboration. The latter 4 years were as Dr.
Brahma Prakash Professor and Project Director, concurrently.
He joined the Space Applications Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad,
1972. During 1973 – 81 he was actively involved in the
development of the Satellite Microwave Radiometer (SAMIR) on
board Bhaskara-1 and -2 satellites which were launched by
USSR in 1979 and 81 respectively – India’s FIRST REMOTE
SENSING SATELLITES.
He obtained his Ph. D degree in radar remote sensing at the
University of Kansas, Lawrence, USA, during 1985-89. He
worked as Associate Research Engineer and later as Project
Manager for the US-National Science Foundation-sponsored
Antarctic Radar Project and developed a Coherent Antarctic
Radar Depth Sounder. Sponsored by KU and NSF, he visited
Antarctica-South Pole and Antarctic Downstream-B Glacier in
1986 and 1987 respectively.
Upon his return to ISRO in 1987, he had a lead role in the
development and testing of side-looking airborne radar
(SLAR) and C-band airborne synthetic-aperture radar (ASAR)
for remote sensing applications. ASAR is adapted for
disaster monitoring applications.
Since 1993 he worked at the ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore
and was associated with the IRS programmes. He led the
ISRO-CNES Megha-Tropiques Satellite Project, as its Project
Director. It was successfully launched on 12 October 2011 by
the ISRO-PSLV launch vehicle from the ISRO-SHAR Centre. Till
end Oct 2012, he was involved in the on-orbit
characterisation of the payloads and Data Products
generation and scientific studies.
Presently he is working as ADJUNCT PROFESSOR in the ECE
Department, Jain University and is guiding Ph. D. students,
research work and projects.
He has published/presented more than 80 technical papers. He
received the J. Dasgupta gold medal for the best paper on
meteorological instrumentation; the US-NSF and the US-Navy
medal and Certificates for the work in Antarctica;
certificate of completing the New Zealand-US “Survival
School in Antarctica”. He was awarded ISRO Team Award-2011
for Megha-Tropiques, as Team Leader.
His primary interests are teaching and research in microwave
remote sensing including radiometry and radar. The focus is
in system design, development and scientific applications.
He is a Fellow, IETE, Senior Member, IEEE (USA) and
IEEE-GeoScience and Remote Sensing, and Co-Chair IEEE GRS,
Bangalore Chapter; Life Member, Indian Meteorological
Society (IMS) and Life Member, Astronautical Society of
India (ASI). |
| |
|
| |
Abstract |
| |
Natural disasters such as cyclones, Earthquakes, tsunamis, cloud-bursts, landslides, flash-floods, forest fires, etc. are some of the major events that cause large-scale misery in terms of loss of life and resources affecting the globe. Studies related to monitoring the occurrence, magnitude and frequency of natural disaster events at both regional and global scales are essential to understand, predict and possibly prevent such events and also to take necessary precautions.
Many national and international agencies have formed groups to monitor and mitigate the disasters that are primarily due to climate change and human activities. Satellites have remarkably assisted in identifying and monitoring the disasters.
There have been a number of global and Indian satellite missions that have demonstrated the possibility of measuring a number of geophysical parameters using very effective remote sensing instruments. However, the quality, quantity, reliability and consistency of data and the scientific results have been very limited and questionable leading to widespread debate. It is important to address the overall missions in terms of mission justification, sensor capability, accuracy, area coverage, frequency of observations, data products, analysis and scientific inferences.
This paper highlights the issues related to the currently available information on all the above and proposes a possible satellite configuration for the purpose on a global scale. It reviews the well-established sensors and proven missions with a perspective to evaluate various sensor specifications and suitability of using them in stand-alone mode as well as in combination of sensors and missions. Although earlier studies have shown the need for a constellation of satellites, this paper specifically highlights the comprehensive application of small satellites, their ground support requirements and data utilisation strategies towards an effective implementation of future disaster monitoring systems. The paper is especially oriented towards application of microwave remote sensing instruments but also generally considers on the instruments in other spectral bands.
|
|
