India and France to develop climate satellite
Narendra Modi and Francois Hollande announced a new project on Monday to develop a satellite to analyse climate change
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande announced a new plan on Monday to develop a satellite that will analyse climate change.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and Centre National d’ Etudes Spatiales (CNES) were due to sign a new deal to jointly develop the satellite after the meeting between Modi and Hollande.
France’s Ambassador to India, Francois Richier, said: “There will be a new project of space programme in relation to observation and prevention of climate change.”
Hollande arrived in Chandigarh on Sunday for his second state visit to India and met Modi on Monday as the chief guest at the Republic Day ceremony on Tuesday.
Richier said that climate change would be high on the agenda of the meeting between the prime minister and French president.
The two leaders discussed ways to enhance bilateral cooperation on research and development and technology innovation.
They also addressed clean energy and energy efficiency solutions that will accelerate the transition towards a low carbon economy.
The CNES is aiming to improve cooperation with Isro as India was one of the first nations to deploy satellite technologies to manage its water resources and address food security.
Cooperation between the two nations has already resulted in two satellites being jointly developed by Isro and CNES and are now delivering data for assessing climate change.
The Megha-Tropiques satellite was launched in 2011 and is helping scientists to map cloud cover in three dimensions.
The Saral-AltiKa satellite was launched in 2013 and measures the surface height of oceans, lakes and rivers with unprecedented accuracy to help manage water resources and analyse weather patterns and climate change.
