Indian geostationary weather satellite with a six-channel imager and nineteen-channel sounder, used for cloud imagery and atmospheric profiles over India.
INSAT-3DR is one of India's geostationary weather satellites, launched on GSLV-F05 from Sriharikota on 8 September 2016. It carries a six-channel imager that photographs the Indian region in visible and infrared light, and a nineteen-channel sounder that measures how temperature and humidity change with height through the atmosphere.
The India Meteorological Department uses its images and soundings for cloud monitoring, monsoon tracking and cyclone forecasting. Its latest orbital elements place it over the equator near 74° East, about 35,780 km up. The full weather fleet, and where to see the official cloud images, is on the ISRO weather satellite tracker.
INSAT-3DR carries a multispectral imager and a 19-channel atmospheric sounder, like INSAT-3D. Its imager adds a middle-infrared band that shows low cloud and fog at night. Two thermal-infrared bands measure sea surface temperature more accurately, and the visible and thermal bands see finer detail.
A data relay transponder and a search-and-rescue transponder continue the services INSAT-3D began.
It weighed 2,211 kg at lift-off, and about 1,255 kg of that was propellant. Most of the fuel was for climbing from the transfer orbit to geostationary-orbit and then holding its slot for years. Its solar array gives 1,700 W.
GSLV-F05 launched INSAT-3DR from Sriharikota in September 2016. Unlike INSAT-3D, which flew on an Ariane 5 from French Guiana, INSAT-3DR flew on an Indian rocket.
The public satellite catalogue carries INSAT-3DR with an operational flag.