RISAT 1, India’s first Radar Satellite launch is a “grand success” by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation).
What’s Radar?What’s Satellite? Let’s try to understand.
Imagine an ocean wave. It’s in the ocean, made of water and can travel some distance. If we have to draw it on paper, we make a wavy line that goes up and down, up and down..
An electromagnetic wave are also waves that are in space, made up of electric and magnetic parts, and can travel large distances.
Radio wave is an electromagnetic wave.
Radio waves are used to ‘see’ objects . When they fall on any object, they bounce off. By seeing how long it takes for the waves to return, we can determine what object is it. Isn’t that cool?
Radar is a machine that uses radio waves to find other objects such as aircraft, ships, and rain.
A satellite is an object that orbits another object in space. Satellites may be natural like moon but man-made satellites also orbit the Earth.
If we combine a satellite with radar, we will get a machine which while circling around earth can give us valuable information. It will do so by throwing waves on various things on earth and based on how much time the wave takes to come back, it can help us with:
- Our Military – by giving information on other country’s aircrafts.
- Agriculture – by determining the type of soil.
- Glacier study – to figure out how speedily they are melting.
- Spying – On other countries !!
It is indeed be a very proud moment for our country!
