Systems Engineering team provides crucial tech to improve India's weather warnings
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
India's INSAT-3D satellite
'The satellite will provide the crucial data needed by scientists and forecasters to better monitor extreme weather and provide life-saving warnings to people in India.'
Experts from the School of Systems Engineering have played a vital role in the development of a new satellite which could provide life-saving weather warnings to the people of India.
Dr Gary Hawkins and his team have developed the crucial optical filters for the INSAT-3D weather satellite on board the giant Ariane 5 rocket, which was launched last week from French Guiana. Ariane 5 also carried Europe's biggest ever telecommunications satellite.
The optical filters, or ‘eyes of the instrument', will measure the amount of contaminants and pollutants in the atmosphere, as well as the temperature, humidity and levels of other gases. The satellite will improve domestic weather forecasting and track potentially lethal cyclones and monsoons originating from the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea.
Dr Hawkins said: "These components, developed by our team at the University, will provide the crucial data needed by scientists and forecasters to better monitor extreme weather and provide life-saving warnings to people in India. This is just another example of the expertise of the Infrared Multilayer Laboratory at Reading being used internationally, alongside work with NASA and ESA on the replacement for the Hubble space telescope and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter."
Dr Andy Turner, from the Department of Meteorology, said: "India is very densely populated, and high levels of carbon from cooking fires and pollutants from factories are thought to be having a big impact on the climate and weather systems. This satellite will be a vital instrument in the monitoring of these pollutants, which can influence the monsoon season and other changes in weather. The observations that are made using the satellite will also help scientists improve climate models and predictions, meaning that more advanced warnings can be given."
Did you know...
... That the University has the largest research capability in weather and climate science and Earth observation of any university in Europe? Reading is also working on a new collaboration, Global Satellite Sensing (GLOSS), with the University of Surrey at the National Physical Laboratory, to monitor changes to the Earth, its ecosystem and climate. In addition, it has also recently launched an innovative internship programme that will give students from universities across Europe a unique insight into the space industry.
... That since 1965, the Infrared Multilayer Laboratory, in the School of Systems Engineering, has been actively involved with many key international space projects? They have developed components for instruments that provide global observations of land, ocean and atmospheric monitoring for use in meteorological theories on climate change, and the study of astrophysical properties of stars and other planetary objects.