Earth receiving station
Also called: Ground station · Topic: Remote Sensing, GIS and GNSS · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Introduction to Remote Sensing"
Meaning
An earth receiving station is a ground station that collects image data sent down electronically by satellites as they pass overhead. Satellites cannot keep data forever, so they send it to the ground over radio links. At the station, errors in the raw data are corrected first. Only then is information taken out of the data. Without such stations, satellite images could not reach users.
Example
India's earth receiving station is at Shadnagar near Hyderabad, Telangana. It receives data from IRS and other satellites. The National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Hyderabad, an ISRO centre, then processes and distributes the data to users.
Don't confuse with
- National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC): this is the organisation that processes and distributes the data and runs Bhuvan. Shadnagar is the station where the signals are physically received.