Surgical strikes: Isro provided satellite images

September 30, 2016

Bengaluru, Sep 30: In what's being described as the first major use of the Cartosat family of satellites, the last one (2c) launched in June this year, sources in Isro said that the armed forces were aided by high-resolution images for the surgical strikes conducted across the line of control (LoC) in the small hours of Thursday.

A source in Isro said: "We've been providing images to the armed forces, the army in particular. While I cannot comment if any specific image was sent on a particular day in the previous week, I can say that Cartosat images are meant for this purpose and the army has used this."
Both Isro and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) have largely remained tight-lipped about the uses of the Cartosat family of satellites—which experts call India's 'eye in the sky'—built for dual use.
The Cartosat-2C in particular added more teeth to India's military surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, and has been providing high resolution images of 0.65 metres, an improvement over the 0.8m resolution of the earlier missions.
Area of Interest Images
"Cartosat also provided Area of Interest (AOI) based images for the armed forces," the source said. Another explained that based on requests, one or more scenes/images covering the AOI as specified is provided in as a single polygon (all the areas in one circle) in the form of a shapefile (non-topological geometry and attribute information for the spatial features).
According to the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) in Hyderabad, AOI products are of two types—standard and precision-based ortho (where images taken from space are corrected to have an uniform scale—both of which are useful for the armed forces. Ortho rectified products are corrected for terrain distortions and camera tilt effects.
While the first Cartosat was launched in 2005, Cartosat-2A launched in 2007 was the first dual-use satellite with capabilities of monitoring missile launches in India's neighbourhood.
And, the Cartosat-2C is the best in the class that India boasts of although countries like the US and Israel boast of better ones. This satellite can not only click pictures of areas of interest, but also record videos of sensitive targets from space, compress it, and relay it back to earth.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

Not Kasab, RSS-linked cop killed Hemant Karkare, says Maharashtra LoP

News Network

May 5,2024

Maharashtra Leader of Opposition Vijay Namdevrao Wadettiwar waded into controversy after he alleged that an RSS-affiliated cop, and not terrorist Ajmal Kasab, killed former state anti-terrorism squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.

In a video statement released on Saturday, the Congress leader alleged that the bullet that killed IPS officer Hemant Karkare did not come from the gun of Ajmal Kasab or any of the other nine Pakistani terrorists involved in the attacks.

Instead, he claimed it came from the weapon of a police officer allegedly "dedicated to" the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Wadettiwar also accused Ujjwal Nikam, the special public prosecutor in the case and a BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Mumbai North Central, of suppressing this information, labeling him a "traitor."

He questioned the BJP's decision to nominate Nikam for the Lok Sabha polls, accusing the party of protecting traitors.

“During the probe, key information was out. However, it was suppressed by Ujjwal Nikam, who is a traitor. My question is, why is BJP protecting a traitor and nominating such a person for Lok Sabha polls? By doing this, BJP is protecting traitors," Wadettiwar alleged, Times of India reported.

These allegations drew strong responses from Nikam and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Nikam condemned Wadettiwar's statement as "baseless and irresponsible," expressing pain at the doubts raised over his integrity.

He emphasized the legal steps taken to convict Kasab, calling Wadettiwar's remarks an insult to the victims of the 26/11 attacks.

“What a reckless statement is being made. I am pained by such baseless allegations, raising doubts over my integrity. It clearly reflects the level of electoral politics. I never thought politicians will stoop to such low levels. For political gain? He (Wadettiwar) is insulting not me, but the 166 departed souls and all persons injured in the 26/11 attacks," Nikam said.

He added, “They (Congress) hold Kasab as innocent. Even Pakistan had accepted that Kasab was involved in the conspiracy and in the terror attack on India and was guilty".

He said Indians very well know the legal steps he had taken to ensure Kasab’s conviction.

Nikam said citizens of the nation would on 4 June, the day of results for Lok Sabha polls, give their reply to such allegations, adding he wished not to dignify the “desperate disinformation” with a further response.

Meanwhile, BJP leader and Deputy CM Fadnavis said, “Our alliance is with Nikam, while Congress has joined hands with Kasab".

Shiv Sena spokesperson Kiran Pawaskar said NIA should arrest Wadettiwar and ask him why he was defending Kasab.

Pawaskar criticized the Congress for allegedly supporting terrorists and expressed surprise at the silence of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on the matter.

“From Wadettiwar’s statement, it appears Congress is supporting terrorists who attacked Mumbai. More shocking is the fact that Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray has maintained silence over the episode,” he said.

Comments