Technical feasibility on reception of VHRR signals from Kalpana-1 satellite in the event of contingency with the existing operational ground receiving system

Abstract

National Satellite Meteorological Center (NSMC), of India Meteorological Department is performing the vital role of receiving signals of meteorological data transmitted by KALPANA-1/INSAT series of national satellites and processing the data to generate various meteorological products for monitoring meteorological, environmental and climatological conditions. The satellite signals are currently being received through a 7.5 m diameter parabolic dish antenna installed  at  INSAT Earth Station of IMD located at Mausam Bhawan Complex, New Delhi.

In this study an attempt has been made to receive and process the VHRR signals of KALPANA-1 through a smaller (3.8m) diameter parabolic dish antenna available at earth station .The link calculations have been made to show extra 2 db margin what is theoretically required and it will be sufficient for image capturing. We  had also compared the  result with existing 7.5m diameter  antenna  and observe that quality of satellite pictures received with 3.8m diameter antenna are also equally good.

The purpose of this study is to keep in operational readiness a backup antenna for the reception of KALPANA-1 in the event of any unforseen contingency with the existing 7.5m diameter parabolic dish antenna, using the existing infrastructure of IMD.