New Delhi- An Indian start-up has modified sophisticated spy and surveillance satellite technology and tweaked it to spot mosquito breeding. Mosquitos are a threat of unparalleled proportions during the summer and monsoon months. In water, mosquitos breed and it is very difficult to detect them by using drones and satellites, but a Kolkata-based space technology start-up named Sisir Radar has organized a high-end hyper-spectral imaging technology to be able to find out if containers and water bodies have mosquito larvae in them or not. The customized cameras were flown on drones.
Sisir Radar is glad to say that through hyperspectral imaging, they were able to get initial results of the detection of mosquito larvae. They planted clean water and larvae infested water in earthen and transparent plastic tumblers. Our drone-borne hyperspectral imager imaged them from a height of 15 meters, equivalent to the height of a five-storied block in Kolkata. They also believe that this research will go a long way in precisely identifying sources of mosquito larvae in water and insecticides can be sprayed in a measured manner.
Tapan Misra, is well known as the father of India’s spy satellites former director of the ISRO’s Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, and founder of Sisir Radar says, that the present method of insecticide spraying is done randomly and our water bodies and aquatic life forms are poisoned unnecessarily. Our investigation will help to eradicate the menace of mosquitoes during the larvae stage itself, which will benefit our environment and lessen the needless malaria and dengue deaths very significantly. It was proved that globally 250 million individuals are afflicted with mosquito-borne diseases in 85 countries. Out of this massive number of afflicted patients, around 600,000 die unnecessarily. Mr. Misra is well known as an excellent scientist with a huge command of synthetic aperture radar imaging, had a tumultuous career at ISRO and was shifted to the Senior Advisor position from his position as Director of the Space Applications Centre in July 2018. He created India’s homemade spy satellites with day and night viewing capabilities leading the development of RISAT-1 and 2. He started Sisir Radar after retiring from ISRO and his career path represents that age is not a barrier to plunging to set up a startup. Mr. Misra’s life motto is capturing the invisible and now the same high-end remote sensing can also help in societal applications
