Topics Covered:
- Awareness in space.
PRISMA Earth observation satellite
What to study?
For Prelims and Mains: PRISMA- features, objectives and significance.
Context: A European Vega rocket has put PRISM- a new Earth-observation satellite into orbit for the Italian Space Agency.
About PRISMA:
PRISMA (an Italian acronym for Hyperspectral Precursor of the Application Mission) is designed to provide information about environmental monitoring, resources management, pollution and crop health.
- The satellite includes a medium resolution camera that can view across all visual wavelengths, as well as a hyperspectral imager that can capture a wider range of wavelengths between 400 and 2500 nanometers.
- The satellite will operate in a sun-synchronous orbit, meaning that it circles the Earth in such a way that the sun is always in the same position as the satellite takes pictures of the planet below.
- The mission can provide a unique contribution to the observations of natural resources and in the study of key environmental processes, such as interaction between atmosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere, observation of global climate change and effects of human activities ecosystems.
Sources: toi.
