INCOIS to go for bathymetric study of Andaman and Lakshadweep

What is the News?

Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services(INCOIS) will conduct a bathymetric study of Andaman and Lakshadweep. INCOIS will take the help of the National Remote Sensing Centre(NRSC) for airline mapping of the ocean floor around islands.

What is the need for this study?

• The study is needed in view of the recent tsunamis near the Indonesian coasts. The damage was more due to High tides by underwater landslides compared to the earthquake.
• These landslides caused sudden wave surges leading to much damage without giving sufficient time to alert people.
• By this study, INCOIS will map the landslide vulnerable areas on the ocean floors.

Why has INCOIS planned to take help from NRSC for this study?

• NRSC has already conducted a similar high-resolution topographic Airborne Laser Terrain Mapping (ALTM) for entire coastal areas of the country.

INCOIS:

• Ministry: It is an autonomous organization. It was established in 1999 under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
• It is a unit of the Earth System Science Organization(ESSO).
• Mandate: Its mandate is to provide the best possible ocean information and advisory services to society, industry, government agencies and the scientific community.
• Location: Hyderabad, Telangana

Other studies by INCOIS:

Tide Gauges for Monitoring of Sea level:

• INCOIS has installed tide gauges for better monitoring of the sea level and more accurate prediction of disasters like cyclones. It has already installed 36 tidal gauges in the Bay of Bengal.
• Further, it has identified ‘gaps’ across the coast of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha for the installation of more tidal gauges.

Flux Buoy:

• INCOIS had deployed a Flux Buoy in the Bay of Bengal in 2019.
• The buoy was deployed into the sea to monitor the temperatures, pressures, salinity, radiation and geochemical changes at various depths.

NRSC:

• It is one of the primary centres of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO),Department of Space(DOS).
• Functions: It is responsible for remote sensing satellite data acquisition and processing, data dissemination, aerial remote sensing, and decision support for disaster management.
• Location: Hyderabad, Telangana

Source: The Hindu

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