INTRODUCTION

Spectacular development of space technology and its applications is no longer remaining a vision out of reach for the common people. Satellite based communication network has linked the entire nation cutting across the geography, language and the society. Ever since the birth of Department of Space (DOS) in 1972, Indian space programme has achieved unique distinction of crossing several milestones while developing indigenous technology and providing technological support for socioeconomic benefit for millions of people of the country. 

 

Soon, the technological advancement of space technology and its applications have proliferated rapidly to the remote areas including the North Eastern Region of the country. Realizing the need of special attention in terms of technological support in managing rich natural resources and improving the poor infrastructure and communication linkages, North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC) was established as a joint initiative of Department of Space (DOS) and the North Eastern Council (NEC) and came into being on 5th of September, 2000. The Centre is all set to augment the developmental process in the region by providing the advanced space technology support.

NESAC has now moved to its permanent building in October 2008.

The major functions of the centre are :

To provide operational remote sensing based natural resource information base to assist activities on development/management of natural resources in the region. 

To provide operational satellite communication applications services for the region extending implementation of satellite communication based applications in education, health, disaster management support, and developmental communication in the region. 

To set up a space science and global change research hub by installation of necessary instrumentation and networking with various academic institutions of the NE region.

SATELLITE COMMUNICATION DIVISION

One most important mandate of North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC) is applications of Satellite Communication (SATCOM) technology to undertake developmental communication programmes in the North Eastern Region (NER) to assist education, health, social welfare and other development activities. The SATCOM application programs can addresses the dissemination of quality education- from primary to University level, provisioning of Medical and Health-care services, enabling of interactive connectivity among the rural farming communities ,  tele-communication support during disaster management  etc. To cater this all this ISRO has a number of vibrant SATCOM applications programs like Telemedicine, Te-education, Village Resource Centre, Communication support in disaster management etc. NESAC is playing the key role in implementation & utilization of all above applications programs in all the eight state of NER in collaboration with other central/state government agencies, NGO’s etc.The available SATCOM facilities at NESAC are as follows:

State-of-the art studio facility for content generation and broadcasting of developmental programs

Village Resource Centre(VRC) expert node for conducting various training program, providing agromat advisory and  data dissemination

Satellite Interactive Terminal (SIT) under EDUSAT program for educational activities Receive Only Terminal (ROT) under national  program on Edusat ISRONET system for video conferencing and data transfer activities among the centre of

DOS/ISRO Transportable WLL-VSAT system for providing audio-video link and data transfer activities for

communication support in Disaster management and various training and awareness program Various system under Ka-band propagation experiment program Various system under GAP-4 experiment program Various system under  IRNSS project

The Ongoing SATCOM applications programs are as follows:

1. Telemedicine

Telemedicine today is one of the most vital SATCOM application programmes of ISRO in the country. The Telemedicine Programme is an innovative process of synergising benefits of Satellite communication and information technology with Biomedical Engineering and Medical Sciences to deliver the health care services to the remote, distant and underserved regions of the country. ISRO has made a modest beginning in telemedicine using satellite communication in the form of a telemedicine pilot project in the year of 2001, connecting Apollo Hospital at Chennai with the Apollo rural hospital at Arogonda village in the Chittor district of Andhra Pradesh. Now a number of telemedicine networks are operational all over the country.

 

For north eastern states a project known as ISRO-NEC telemedicine project has been formulated in July 2004 using satellite communication through Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) to commission 72 telemedicine nodes in all the districts of all the north eastern states including Sikkim. The state wise breakup of the nos. of telemedicine centre is: Arunachal Pradesh-8, Assam-23, Manipur-9, Mizoram-7, Meghalaya-9, Nagaland-8, Sikkim-4 and Tripura-4.The major objectives of the project is to connect the district level hospitals to the specialty/super specialty hospitals of the region as well as outside the region for better healthcare at minimum cost using modern technology.  The major stakeholders of the project are ISRO, North Eastern Council (NEC) and state governments of the region. NESAC is coordinating the project from ISRO side in installation & commissioning of the system, training, monitoring, trouble-shooting etc. Till date a total of 25 telemedicine centres (Table 1) has been commissioned and remaining 47 are in pipeline. Another telemedicine project known as Army Telemedicine Network for NER is also operational in the north eastern states in collaboration with Indian Army form March 2008. Under this network a total of 6 telemedicine centre (Table 2)

Telemedicine today is one of the most vital SATCOM application programmes of ISRO in the country. The Telemedicine Programme is an innovative process of synergising benefits of Satellite communication and information technology with Biomedical Engineering and Medical Sciences to deliver the health care services to the remote, distant and underserved regions of the country. ISRO has made a modest beginning in telemedicine using satellite communication in the form of a telemedicine pilot project in the year of 2001, connecting Apollo Hospital at Chennai with the Apollo rural hospital at Arogonda village in the Chittor district of Andhra Pradesh. Now a number of telemedicine networks are operational all over the country.

 

For north eastern states a project known as ISRO-NEC telemedicine project has been formulated in July 2004 using satellite communication through Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) to commission 72 telemedicine nodes in all the districts of all the north eastern states including Sikkim. The state wise breakup of the nos. of telemedicine centre is: Arunachal Pradesh-8, Assam-23, Manipur-9, Mizoram-7, Meghalaya-9, Nagaland-8, Sikkim-4 and Tripura-4.The major objectives of the project is to connect the district level hospitals to the specialty/super specialty hospitals of the region as well as outside the region for better healthcare at minimum cost using modern technology.  The major stakeholders of the project are ISRO, North Eastern Council (NEC) and state governments of the region. NESAC is coordinating the project from ISRO side in installation & commissioning of the system, training, monitoring, trouble-shooting etc. Till date a total of 25 telemedicine centres (Table 1) has been commissioned and remaining 47 are in pipeline. Another telemedicine project known as Army Telemedicine Network for NER is also operational in the north eastern states in collaboration with Indian Army form March 2008. Under this network a total of 6 telemedicine centre (Table 2) has been commissioned in various army hospitals in the region.

Table 1: List of civilian Telemedicine centre in NER under ISRO-NEC joint Telemedicine program

State Total nos. of Telemedicine centre commissioned under ISRO-NEC joint Telemedicine project

 

Location

Arunachal Pradesh

 

4 (Four)

1. Ram Krishna Mission Hospital, Itanagar

2. General Hospital, Naharlagun3. Civil hospital, Passighat4. Civil Hospital, Tawang

 

 

Assam

 

1. (Seven)

1. Guwahati Medical College & Hospital, Guwahati

2. Assam Medical College & Hospital, Dibrugarh

3. Jorhat Medical College & Hospital, Jorhat

4. Civil Hospital, Tinsukia5. Civil Hospital, North Lakhimpur6. Civil Hospital, Golaghat

7. Civil Hospital, Hailakandi

Manipur 1 (One) 1. Regional Institute of Medical Science (RIMS), Imphal

Meghalaya 4 (Four) 1. North Eastern Indira Gandhi regional Institute of Health & Medical Science (NEIGRIHMS), Shillong

2. Civil Hospital, Shillong3. Civil Hospital, Jowai4. Civil Hospital, Tura

Mizoram 4 (Four) 1. Civil Hospital, Aizawl

2   Civil Hospital,  Lunglei3.   District Hospital,  Saiha4.   Civil Hospital,  Champhai

Nagaland 1 (One) 1. Civil Hospital, Mokukchang

Sikkim 1 (One) 1. S.T.N.M. Government Hospital, Gangtok

 

Tripura 3 (Three) 1. Sub-Divisional Hospital Dharmanagar    2. Civil Hospital, Kailsahar    3. Sub-Divisional Hospital,            Kamalpur

 

Table 2: List of Telemedicine centre in NER under Indian Army

 State Total nos. of Telemedicine centre commissioned under Indian Army Telemedicine project

 

Location

Assam 2 (One) 1. 151 Base Hospital, Basistha , Guwahati

2. Military Hospital, Silchar

Manipur 1 (One) 1. Military Hospital, Liemakhong

Meghalaya 1 (One) 1. Military Hospital, Shillong

Nagaland 1 (One) 1. Military Hospital, Dimapur

Tripura 1 (One) 1. Military Hospital, Agartala

 

2. EDUSAT Utilisation Programme 

One important aspect of SATCOM applications in the North Eastern States is the Tele-Education Project. ISRO has dedicated to the nation one of its satellites solely for the education sector. It is called the EDUSAT (also GSAT-3) satellite that was launched on September 20, 2004 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh by the Geo-Synchronous launch vehicle GSLV (F01). It is in fact, India's first thematic satellite dedicated exclusively for educational services.

The EDUSAT was configured to meet India’s growing demand for distance education using audio-visual medium and employing Direct-to-home type direct satellite broadcasting with interactive Class-room capabilities. The EDUSAT Utilisation Program was envisioned in a manner as to create state-wise SATCOM networks for the eight North Eastern states disseminating quality education programmes for different levels of the academia. Based on the hub networking topology, the NER

EDUSAT network has its hub suitably placed somewhere in the state capital with the remote ends (SITs & ROTs) housed in some identified primary and higher secondary level schools, colleges.

The hub has one Studio facility from where content is to be generated by experts and then unicasted or multicasted to the targeted recipients. The EDUSAT has multiple regional beams covering different parts of India - 5 Ku-band transponders with spot beams covering Northern, Eastern, Southern, Western and the North-eastern regions of the country, one Ku-band transponder (National beam) with its footprint covering the Indian mainland region and six Ext. C-band transponders with their footprints covering the entire country. EDUSAT is being implemented in three phases- pilot, semi-operational and operational phases.

 

 

The Hub-station

Terrestrial hubs are used to link to and from terminals and convey services like virtual classroom. The standard used is called Digital Video Broadcasting, Return Channel via satellite (DVB-RCS). The DVB-RCS is a system that allows two-way communication between the Satellite Interactive Terminals (SITs) installed at customer's sites via the hub. The DVB-RCS system operates as a Star configuration, thus its central station is called the "Hub." This station implements the forward link via a conventional DVB-S chain (similar to digital TV broadcasting) while the return link is implemented using the DVB-RCS standard. The Hub consists of microwave equipment for the transmission and reception of signals and a control centre for managing network traffic. This

station also hosts interfacing equipment supporting a wide range of terrestrial interfaces. An important Hub function is to map the traffic of all remote terminals belonging to each user group.

 

The Teaching end

Also called as the Expert Node, the Teaching End is the place where the contents (subject/topic wise) are created by experts and delivered in a time-scheduled manner using preinstalled third-party software. A general configuration of the teaching end is shown below:

 

The Student end

The student end consists of the Receive-only Terminals (ROTs) and the Satellite Interactive terminals (SITs) also called the Return Channel Satellite Terminals (RCSTs).  Students/ targeted user group can receive the contents transmitted and even interact with the experts at the teaching end directly (facility available in SITs only) using a preinstalled third-party software.

 

Status of EDUSAT Network in the NER

Already commissioned:

ARUNACHAL PRADESH: 1 Hub & Studio at Rajib Gandhi University, Itanagar& 50 Satellite Interactive Terminals (SITs) at various schools and educational institutes across the state. The network is already operational.

TRIPURA: 1 HUB & Studio at SCERT, Agartala& 50 SITs at various schools and educational institutes across the state. The network is already operational.

MEGHALAYA: 1 HUB & Studio at DERT, Shillong & 50 SITs at various schools and educational institutes across the state. The network is already operational.

NAGALAND:  1 HUB & Studio at Kohima Science College, Kohima & 50 SITs at various schools and educational institutes across the state. The network is going to be made operational soon.

MIZORAM:  1 HUB & Studio at SCERT, Aizawl & 50 SITs at various schools and educational institutes across the state. The network is going to be made operational soon.

ASSAM: 1 HUB & Studio at SIRD extension centre, Kahikuchi, Guwahati and 34 SITs at SIRD extension centres and DIETs across the state. The network is already operational.

 

Under commissioning:

SIKKIM: 1 HUB & Studio & 50 SITs across the state.

Planned:

MANIPUR: 1 HUB & Studio & 50 SITs across the state.

3. Village Resource Centre (VRC) program

ISRO has initiated the setting up of the VRC with a view to integrate its capabilities in satellite communications and satellite based earth observations to disseminate a variety of services emanating from the space systems and other IT tools to address the changing and critical needs of the rural community. This project strives to promote a need based single window delivery system for providing services in the areas of education, health, nutrition, weather, environment, agriculture and livelihoods to the rural population and to empower them to face the challenges. The VRC is a totally interactive VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) based network. VRCs will be set up in association with grass root level organisations, who have a strong field presence and experience of mobilising communities to act for development and proven track record. VRCs will provide a variety of services like telemedicine, tele-education, data base on the natural resources, interactive farmers’ advisories on agriculture, fisheries, weather etc. The VRCs will be managed by the associating agency and it is the capability of the associating agency to make value addition on the services provided. They can also dovetail their existing rural development programmes to VRC. The overall implementation of the project will be jointly by ISRO and the associating agency. The associating agency is expected to set up the required infrastructure and required manpower to manage the VRCs. ISRO will provide the satellite connectivity for communication, tele-education, telemedicine and required equipment. The monitoring of the progress of the project and also the quality of the technical input/output etc will be evaluated time to time and based on this proper corrective measures will be taken up. NESAC has coordinated the identification of associating agency, site surveying, installation, commissioning, training and creation of natural resource database of the target villages using RS & GIS technology for the VRC network in NER.

 

Status of VRC Network in the NER

AssamIn Assam, a partnership between ISRO and Assam Branch of Indian Tea Association (ABITA) has been formed to commission VRC network in the rural areas of Assam to uplift the life and livelihood of the people. ABITA GraminKrishiUnnayanPrakalpa (ABITA-GKUP) is working as the associating agency which has taken the overall responsibility of operating 10 VRCs in 10 selected village clusters of Assam covering 109 villages and a population of 1, 20, 501. The locations are Lohowal, Moran, Binduguri, Doomdooma, Paneri, Borgang, Lakhimpur, Margherita, Sonari&Mariani.This network has 3 expert VRCs located at ABITA-GKUP office, Guwahati; NESAC, Shillong and Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat. This VRC network was inaugurated by Sri TarunGogoi, Honorable Chief Minister of Assam in the month of November, 2008.

 

The Centre is equipped with the following communication systems:  

Fixed / Transportable WLL-VSAT System, to provide two-way audio-video link between the studio and any part of the country.

INSAT Type C handheld terminals for message transmission, for providing emergency communication support in a disaster situation.

SpaceNet connectivity. Expanded TDCC studio with standby power supply to take up uninterrupted transmission of

Developmental Communications programmes. Satellite Interactive Terminal to monitor Edusat programmes in regional beam VRC Expert Node Hardware & software. One Automatic Weather Station.

ISRO Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP)

ISRO Geosphere Biosphere Programme is focused to understand the Land-Air-Ocean interactions through Geosphere-Biosphere-Atmospheric mass and energy exchange processes that contribute to the overall understanding of parameters responsible for our climate change. The programme has nine major projects covering distinct and cross cutting subjects. NESAC has been identified as one of the major centers for conducting some of the studies under this programme. NESAC has, so far, been contributing in four of the projects as mentioned below:

Aerosol Radiative Forcing over India Atmospheric Boundary Layer Characterization Atmospheric Trace Gases Chemistry, Transport and Modeling (AT-CTM) National Carbon Project (NCP)

Aerosol Radiative Forcing over India (ARFI)The project is coordinated from Space Physics Laboratory, Thiruvanandapuram. At NESAC the objective of the programme is to characterize regional aerosol through long term station measurements and campaigns. Different optical, physical, and Chemical properties of aerosol like, size distribution, number concentration, optical depth, mass concentration, aerosol type, etc are measured and used in the models to estimate the radiative forcings of the aerosol. The direct and indirect effects of aerosol are studied in detail to understand the aerosol-cloud interaction. As NER is a land locked area cobered by hills all around with the Brahamaputra plains at the centre, the contribution of long range transport on total regional aerosol load forms large part of the study.

Figure : Diurnal and seasonal variation of aerosol black carbon over Umiam

 

Figure : Monthly averaged spectral aerosol optical depth

 

Atmospheric Boundary Layer Characterization The boundary layer plays a very critical role in modulating the local weather. The data from three instruments (SODAR, mini boundary layer mast, and PisharotySonde) are used to estimate the evolution of atmospheric boundary layer. Information on the boundary layer shall be incorporated in the numerical weather prediction models to improve the accuracy of the models. The information shall also be used in modeling the dispersion of various trace and green house gases.

 

Instrumentation and infrastructure development

Observation forms the basis of research in Atmospheric and Environmental Science. The success of ASP and IGBP depends on data from a reliable and adequate set of instruments. The number of weather observatories in NER was too less to have enough data to conduct a meaningful study on weather and climate. NESAC with support from ISRO took necessary steps to reduce the gaps in such observational network. ISRO developed Automatic Weather Station (AWS) came handy in this initiative. The centre has also procured instruments to study the physical properties of aerosols and its forcings, planetary boundary layer, upper atmosphere, etc.

AutomaticWeather Station Network

Eighty AWS have been installed across eight states of NER in collaboration with several state and central government institutes operating in the region. The AWS records hourly data on Rainfall, Wind Speed, Wind Direction, Atmospheric Pressure, Relative Humidity, Temperature and Sun shine duration. The data is stored in a local data logger in addition to transmitting twice within one hour after collecting the data. The transmitted data is received at meteorological and oceanographic satellite data archival centre (MOSDAC), Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad and put in their web site (http://mosdac.gov.in). There are 24 AWS in Assam, 16 in Meghalaya, 15 in Arunachal Pradesh, 7 in Nagaland, 6 in Manipur, 5 in Mizoram, 5 in Tripura, and 2 in Sikkim.

The data from these AWS are being extensively used by Agriculture departments, water resource departments, etc. of some state governments. Besides, the data forms back bone of flood forecasting and drought estimates, being carried out by NESAC.  

   

Mini Boundary Layer Mast

It provides wind speed, wind direction, temperature and relative humidity at three vertical levels (at 8m, 8m and 15m). In addition it provides ground level data on rainfall, atmospheric pressure, net incoming and outgoing radiation, soil moisture (at five levels up to 1 m) and soil temperature (at seven levels up to 1m). It can record data at 1 second interval and transmits every four minutes average data via SMS using a GSM connection

 

Sound Detection and Ranging (SODAR)

The data from this instrument is used for studying the boundary layer dynamics. It provides the wind speed value along the E-W, N-S and vertical direction and measures the pockets of turbulence within the atmospheric boundary layer. The instrument provides vertical profile data up to 1 km (apprx.)

 

Atmosphere probing using Pisharotysonde

Pisharotysonde along with the ground station hardware were developed by VSSC, Thiruvanthapuram. One sonde is launched every week using hydrogen gas filled balloon. The sonde has sensors for measuring ambient temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure and a GPS receiver and a transmitter. The GPS receiver estimates the instantaneous position of the balloon which is used to find the wind speed and direction. The sonde collects and transmits data at one second interval. The balloon normally reaches to a height of 25 km (apprx) before burst.

 

Multi Wavelength Radiometer

The instrument was developed by Space Physics Laboratory, Thiruvanandapuram. It records Aerosol optical depth, columnar water vapor and columnar ozone, by measuring spectral extinction at ten wavelength bands, centered at 380, 400, 450, 500, 600, 650, 750, 850, 935 and 1025 nm.

 

Microtops II Sunphotometer

The instrument records Aerosol optical depth, columnar water vapour and columnar ozone by measuring spectral extinction at five wavelength bands, centered at 380, 440, 500, 936 and 1020 nm. It is a light weight and portable instruments, ideal for field measurements. It has a GPS receiver connected to it to record the measurement location.

 

Aethalometer

The instrument provides aerosol black carbon (BC) concentration in ng per m-3 of air sample at seven different channels (wavelength centered at 370, 470, 520, 590, 660, 880 and 950 nm). Aerosol BC is a very critical particulate pollutant having strong radiation absorbing characteristics. The spectral measurement of BC helps in understanding the potential BC sources and their relative impact.   

 

 

 

 Micro Rain Radar

It is FM-CW (frequency modulated continuous wave) radar operating at 24.1 GHz. It measures the vertical profile of DSD of rainfall. The profile is measured at 32 range gates and at every level total rain, rain drop number density (per m-3of air), total precipitable water etc are measured. The range bin (200 meter at NESAC) and sample interval (30 seconds at NESAC) is user selectable.

The centre is also procuring Electric Low Pressure Impactor, Boundary Layer Lidar (BLL), and Online analysers for SOx, NOx, CO, CH4,O3 gases.