THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The ISRO will launch a new ocean-monitoring satellite ‘Oceansat-3’ on November 26 at Sriharikota. It is equipped for oceanography and atmospheric studies. This launch is the mission of PSLV C54. Eight satellites, including five from Bhutan and the United States, will be with Oceansat in the mission launch at 11.30 am.

The main mission of the satellite which monitors seas around India, is weather studies and environmental protection, For this purpose, 13-band OCM to know the color change of the sea, Ku-band SCAT which can capture even small changes in wind, 2-band SSTM which can note the heat changes on the sea surface and ARGOS made by France, are also in Oceansat.

India first launched Oceansat in 1999. Oceansat 2 was launched in 2009 when its ten-year term was completed. In 2014, Oceansat 3 failed to be launched. During this period, the services of other Earth observation satellites such as Cartosat and Resourcesat were utilized for climate monitoring.

Oceansat 3 weighs 960 kg and has a power capacity of 1360 watts. It will be launched into an orbit at an altitude of 723 km above the earth. The term is till 2030. Launching alongside Oceansat are the Bhutan government's BhutanSat, Pixel India's Anand satellite, Polar Space's Thybolt 1 and Thybolt 2 satellites, and four Astrosat satellites of America's Spacesat. This is ISRO's 56th launch using the PSLV rocket.