ESSIC/AOSC Professor Raghu Murtugudde was quoted in The Hindu online news source this week, in regard to the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) launch of a satellite designed to collect and relay data on the Earth’s oceans.
Jointly developed by France (CNES) and India (ISRO), the 900-pound SARAL satellite will record sea levels, wave heights, and winds over the oceans, then send this information to mission tracking centers in France and India. The SARAL mission is complementary to the Jason-2 mission of NASA/NOAA and CNES/EUMETSAT.
“It is good for India, which has long coastline, to get into sea-level monitoring,” said Murtugudde.
India hopes to begin tracking and analyzing sea level heights to better understand the level of threat smaller, outlying countries in its neighborhood – such as Bangladesh or the Maldives – face from sea level rise.
Murtugudde, who was also recently featured in The Hindu for his presentation at the Jawaharlal Nehru National College of Engineering, has voluntarily provided considerable time to young Indian journalists, both as a scientific expert and general technical resource.
“I want to help with science writing (in India), even if it means it’s pro bono,” said Murtugudde.
