BANGALORE: Numerous U.S. satellites studying changes in the Earth, oceans and atmosphere have been pumping in huge quantities of data. "The most difficult thing we find is understanding the meaning of the data for meteorological prediction. This is one major area in which India's experts can help NASA," says Jim Dodge, programme director of earth sciences at the U.S. space agency. Delivering a "vision" talk at the space summit organised as a part of the 90th Indian Science Congress here, Dodge pointedly mentioned the expertise of Indians in meteorology, mathematics, physics and other disciplines for the study of data from satellites. "We are right now swimming with new data that could predict the future. Our focus, like the Indian space programme, is also on meeting the societal needs in the next two decades," Dodge added. "The drivers are no more technology, but scientific. How the global Earth system is changing and how the Earth responds to natural and human-induced changes are some questions." The urgency in doing the "massive job of distilling data" emanates from the fact that there is a demand for providing the information on a personal computer. "The challenge for the future is really analysis of data," Dodge said. But it is not only the U.S. that is seeking India's cooperation in space technology and applications. China, Thailand, Malaysia and the European Space Agency are all looking for strengthening their ties with India. "We have a memorandum of understanding with India. But we are still in the exploratory stage. We don't know where it will be headed finally," an official of the Chinese space agency told IANS. "We have the capacity to launch big satellites, but India has expertise in remote sensing and Earth sciences." Suvit Vibulshresth of Thailand's Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) told the space summit: "Thailand is already receiving images from the Indian remote sensing satellite. And we are awaiting the launch of Cartosat to receive higher density images. We also hope India can help us build a small satellite. Added Antonio Rodata, director of the European Space Agency: "We have been cooperating with India for 25 years. We are now having talks for cooperation in disaster management."
Source: IANS