Time Line
1970
The French Institutes of Pondicherry launches a cartographic programme for the Western Ghat area.
----
National Sample Survey (NSS) is regognised by bringining together all aspects of survey work into a single unified agency, known as the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) under the Department of Statistics.
----
Operational System for collecting information about the earth on a repetitive schedule starts with the help of the instruments like Skylab (later, the Space Shuttle)
----
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is established.
1971
Department of Science and Technology (DST) is established with the objective of promoting new areas of Science and Technology.
----
Survey of India gets transferred to DST after a trail of supervisons from the Defence Ministry, Agricultural Department and Education.
----
Mekaster International Pvt. Ltd is established, which later started marketing Trimble GPS and Ground Penetration Radars for sub-surface mapping.
----
The Canada Geographic Information System (CGIS) becomes fully operational.
1972
ISO establishes various centres like Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Shar Centre, ISRO Satellite Application Centre (ISRO), Space Application centre (SAC), ISRO is brought under Department of Space.
----
The first Landsat satellite is launched (originally known as ERTS-1) by NASA that was dedicated to mapping natural and cultural resources on land and ocean surfaces.
----
General Information System for Planning (GISP) is developed by the US Department of the Environment.
1973
Society of Photogrammetry is established and formally registered with the ideas sown in 1969, which is renamed as Indian Society of Remote Sensing by 1980s.
First issue of Photonirvachak (which is later known as Indian Journal of Remote Sensing) is published.
----
Maryland Automatic Geographic Information (MAGI), one of the first statewide GIS projects begins in US.
1974
The first AUTOCARTO conference is held in September, in Reston, Virginia. (Although the AUTOCARTO series really started the year before as the International Symposium on Computer Assisted Cartography).
----
The first Synchronous Meteorological Satellite, SMS-1 operational prototype is launched.
1975
India’s first indigenous scientific satellite Aryabhata is launched by the Soviet launch vehicle.
----
National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) is established at Hyderabad for acquisition and distribution of data from various satellites.
----
European Space Agency is formed.
1976
Indian Photogrammetric Institute, (presently known as Indian Institute of Remote Sensing) comes under NRSA.
----
National Informatics Centre (NIC) is established.
----
Minnesota Land Management Information System (MLMIS), another significant state-wide GIS, begins as a research project at the Centre for Urban and Regional Analysis, University of Minnesota.
1977 The USGS developes the Digital Line Graph (DLG) spatial data format.
1978
ERDAS is founded.
----
A Radar Imaging System - the main sensor on Seasat, US is launched.
----
Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZSC) instrument is flown on-board the NIMBUS 7 platform that collected ocean colour data from November 1978 to June 1986.
1979
Indian National Cartographic Association(INCA) is established.
----
Bhaskara I, an indigeneous earth observation satellite is launched by a Soviet Vehicle.
----
For the first time, the Indian Navy’s ship takes part in the international venture "Monsoon Experiments (MONEX 79)" to study the onset, break-up and advance of monsoon.
----
The Government of India sets up the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH) with headquarters at Roorkee.
----
Australian Centre for Remote Sensing (ACRES), Australia’s major Remote Sensing organisation which is established as the Australian Landsat station
|
|
NOAA
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a multivaried American environmental scientific agency composed of the National Ocean Service, National Marine Fisheries service, National Environmental satellite Data and Information Service and Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research of the US government. The creation of NOAA on October3, 1970 was the result of a series of decisions, which recognised the importance of the oceans and atmosphere to the nation's welfare and economy. Three of the principal NOAA offices-maritime charting, weather and fisheries were all created in the 19th century. Maritime charting began as the Survey of the Coast in 1807 and US Army Lake Survey in 1841. The first national weather warning service was created in the Department of the Army in 1870; and the US Fish commission was created in 1871. These were the precursors of the National Marine Fisheries Service. The beginnings of National Environmental, Satellite, Data and Information service (NESDIS) can be traced back to the Coast & Geodetic Survey magnetic investigations in the 19th century. NESDIS's National Climatic Data Center can be traced to the passage of the Federal Records Acts of 1950, and the establishment of the National Weather Records centre in Asheville, North Carolina.
|
Aryabhata to IRS-P4
During 1970s, India undertook demonstration of space applications for communication, broadcasting and remote sensing by designing and building experimental satellites. Aryabhata, Bhaskara, Apple and Rohini are the experimental satellites launched. Aryabhata the first experimental satellite launched in April 19 1975 from Kupustin Yar on Kosmos 11 K 65 M.
Indian Remote Sensing Satellites (IRS), commissioned in 1988, has the world's largest constellation of five remote sensing satellites in orbit, IRS-1B, IRS-1C, IRS-1D, IRS-P3 and IRS-P4. The first in the IRS series was the IRS-1A, launched on 17 March, 1988. Till the launch of IKONOS, IRS-1C and IRS-1D were the highest resolution civilian satellites.
|
Landsat
Landsat satellites for the past two and a half decades have been providing the repetitive aquisition of high-resolution multispectral data on global basis. A unique 25-year data record of the Earth’s land surface now exists. This unique retrospective potrait of the Earth’s surface has been used across disciplines to achieve improved understanding of the earth’s land surface and the impact of humans on the environment. The development of the Landsat programme was in a sense a spinoff from the US Lunar program when certain NASA scientist realised the significance of viewing of the Earth from space. Thus in 1967, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) encouraged by the US department of the Interior initiated the Earth Resource Technology Satellite (ERTS) program which was renamed as "LANDSAT PROGRAM" during the second launch of the Landsat satellite series. This program resulted in the deployment of six satellites and one failure.
|
N I C
National Informatics Centre (NIC) was set up in 1976 with a long term objective of setting up a computer-based informatics network for decision support to Governments/Ministries/Departments, development of databases relating to India’s socio-economic development and monitoring planned programmes. Since 1977, NIC has been playing a catalytic role in creating informatics awareness. NIC operates a nation-wide satellite (INSAT) based computer communication network called NICNET to facilitate information flow from the points of origin to the place of decision making. NICNET is one of the largest VSAT-based networks of its kind in the world. Operating on C-band and high speed Ku-band, NICNET can be accessed through terrestrial linkages also, at any time of the day. Around 700 locations in India, including all state capitals, district headquarters and selected commercial centres can be directly accessed through NICNET. It is connected to over 200 International Networks in 160 countries.
|
|