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Efforts on to use satellites to track chopper

Hyderabad, 03 September 2009: Although radar-imaging satellites could pick up images during the night, no such satellite would cover tonight the area where the helicopter of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy went missing since Wednesday morning.

According to sources in the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has access to two such satellites—one Indian and another foreign. “Such microwave satellites are very useful in night time as they can see in dark and also peer through clouds”, the sources added.

Most of the remote sensing satellites were optical and useful in daytime as they depend on sunlight for seeing the image. The remote sensing satellites cross the equator around 10.30 a.m. in the morning and around that time would pass over India. Efforts were on to switch on the cameras of ISRO’s remote sensing satellites when they pass over the spot in the morning. Already, a low-flying aircraft of the NRSA was deployed in the search operations. It is capable of use during night and in inclement weather