India’s first dedicated Geo-imaging Earth Observation Satellite

» Earth Observation Satellite-05 (EOS-05), also known as GISAT-1A, is an Indian Earth observation satellite built by ISRO.

• The EOS-05 is India’s first imaging satellite designed to monitor the Earth from geosynchronous orbit, about 36,000 km above the Earth.
• The objective of EOS-05 is to gather detailed visual information about the Earth’s surface, and it is equipped with specialized high-performance cameras and sensors.
• Data obtained from such satellites can be utilized for various purposes, including crop monitoring, weather forecasting, safely assessing the impact of natural disasters like floods or forest fires, and keeping a watch on borders and areas of strategic security importance.

Difference from ISRO’s other imaging satellites:

Prior to this, India has launched several specialized imaging satellites, such as the IRS (Indian Remote Sensing) series and RISAT (Radar Imaging Satellite) for weather monitoring, and the CARSAT series for cartographic mapping of geography and terrain.

» While ISRO’s earlier imaging satellites operated in low-altitude orbits—such as the Sun-Synchronous Polar Orbit (SSPO)—EOS-05 will operate in the Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO).

• • A satellite operating in GEO reaches a specific location where it orbits at approximately the same speed as the Earth’s rotation. When viewed from the Earth’s surface, the satellite appears stationary at a fixed point.
  • This means that—unlike other imaging satellites in low-altitude orbits, which capture multiple images of a location as they move along their path—EOS-05 will provide a continuous and near real-time view of the area.

» EOS-05 can track and identify changes. It can continuously monitor critical military infrastructure, ports, nuclear sites, bunker construction, vehicle movement or concentrations, roads, and more. For this reason, EOS-05 has been termed an ‘eye-in-the-sky’.