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MEGHA-TROPIQUES
MEGHA-TROPIQUES Satellite
CHARACTERISTICS 
Satellite composed of an India IRS platform
Three instruments: MADRAS, SAPHIR, SCARAB
Orbit at 800 km altitude with a 20° inclination above the equator.
 
Megha-Tropiques satellite
General view of the Megha-Tropiques satellite

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MEGHA-TROPIQUES SATELLITE

The Megha-Tropiques system is composed of:

    a mini-satellite developed jointly by France and India, which includes:

      a platform derived from the Indian IRS platform
      a set of three payloads

        MADRAS, developed jointly by CNES and ISRO
        SAPHIR, provided by CNES
        SCARAB, provided by CNES

MADRAS is a conical scanning microwave imager: the incidence has to be constant to take advantage of the polarization information. The spot size is always the same but the scan track follows a circle arc. SAPHIR and SCARAB are cross track scanning radiometer: the scan track is perpendicular to the satellite track and the spots enlarge with the scan angle.

 Megha-Tropiques instruments fields of view
In-orbit configuration of the Megha-Tropiques satellite
 
PSLV launcher The Megha-Tropiques satellite will be launched by an Indian PSLV launcher in 2008, on a 800 km orbit with an inclination of 20°.

This orbit and the characteristics of each instrument provide the following time sampling.

Number of measurements per day for MADRAS
Number of measurements
per day for MADRAS.		 Number of measurements per day for SCARAB
Number of measurements
per day for SCARAB.
 
Nota: The number of measurements per day for SAPHIR is one less than for SCARAB.


Latest Update 09/10/2006