SARAL or Satellite with ARgos and ALtiKa

             The Satellite with ARGOS and ALTIKA (SARAL) is a joint Indo-French satellite mission for oceanographic studies. SARAL will perform altimetric measurements designed to study ocean circulation and sea surface elevation. SARAL was successfully launched on 25 February 2013. 

Lift-off Mass	407 kg
Orbit	781 km polar Sun synchronous
Sensors	4 PI sun sensors, magnetometer, star sensors and miniaturised gyro based Inertial Reference Unit
Orbit Inclination	98.538o
Local Time of Equator	18:00 hours crossing
Power	Solar Array generating 906 W and 46.8 Ampere-hour Lithium-ion battery
Onboard data storage	32 Gb
Attitude and Orbit Control	3-axis stabilisation with reaction wheels, Hydrazine Control System based thrusters
Mission Life	5 years
Launch date	Feb 25, 2013
Launch site	SDSC SHAR Centre, Sriharikota, India
Launch vehicle	PSLV - C20

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The payloads of SARAL are:

Ka band Altimeter, ALTIKA

ALTIKA, the altimeter and prime payload of the SARAL mission, will be the first space borne altimeter to operate at K_a band. It built by the French National Space Agency CNES. The payload is intended for oceanographic applications, operates at 35.75 Giga Hertz. ALTIKA is set to take over ocean-monitoring from Envisat. It is the first to operate at such a high frequency, making it more compact and delivering better performance than the previous generation.

ALTIKA will measure ocean surface topography with an accuracy of 8 mm, against 2.5 cm on average using current-generation altimeters, and with a spatial resolution of 2 km.

ARGOS Data Collection System

It built by the French National Space Agency CNES. ARGOS contributes to the development and operational implementation of the global ARGOS Data Collection System. It will collect a variety of data from ocean buoys to transmit the same to the ARGOS Ground Segment for subsequent processing and distribution.

Solid State C-band Transponder (SCBT)

Is from ISRO and intended for ground RADAR calibration. It is a continuation of such support provided by C-Band Transponders flown in the earlier IRS-P3 and IRS-P5 missions.

The payloads of SARAL are accommodated in the Indian Mini Satellite-2 bus, which is built by ISRO.

  

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SARAL Applications

SARAL data products will be useful for operational as well as research user communities in many fields like

• Marine meteorology and sea state forecasting
• Operational oceanography
• Seasonal forecasting*
• Climate monitoring
• Ocean, earth system and climate research
• Continental ice studies
• Protection of biodiversity
• Management and protection of marine ecosystem
• Environmental monitoring
• Improvement of maritime security