ISRO's New Nano Satellite Will Monitor Air Pollution in Indian Cities

Scientists are not always discovering new galaxies or working on ultra cool space mission projects. They do a lot of things for the welfare of our country as well.

Space Applications Centre (SAC) of the Indian Space Research Organisation is collaborating with University of Toronto's Institute for Aerospace Studies to come up with a satellite that will keep a check on air pollution levels in India.

The Next Generation Earth Monitoring and Observation and Aerosol Monitoring (NEMO-AM) satellite will monitor air pollutants in some of the country's most polluted cities like Delhi, Lucknow, Amritsar, and Allahabad.

According to reports, the nano-satellite, which will be 2x2x1 ft. in dimension and weigh 15 kg, will be placed 500 km above earth.

Photo source: space.skyrocket.de

"The mission is designed to cover, each day, up to 50,000 sq km area of the country's 32.87 lakh sq km," said SAC director Tapan Misra to Business Insider.

NEMO-AM is one of ISRO's most high-performance nano-satellite missions for the country.

It has powerful sensors, which will analyse the sunlight reflected from the earth's surface. The satellite will analyse the light from different angles to determine the nature of the suspended particles.

It will also detect the aerosol concentration in the air.

Photo source: cdn.yourarticlelibrary.com

According to reports, ISRO is providing the scientific expertise and algorithm. The spacecraft will be controllable from both Toronto and ISRO's  facility.

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