Context: The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) is planning to take the help of the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) for airline mapping of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshwadeep to get a better picture of the ocean floor, also called ‘bathymetric’ study.

Details:

• NRSC has already done a similar high resolution topographic Airborne Laser Terrain Mapping (ALTM) for entire coastal areas of the country.
• Such a study has become imperative in view of the recent tsunamis of the Indonesian coasts where more than the quake related high waves, damage was due to landslides that had under the sea beds causing sudden wave surge leading to much damage without giving sufficient time to alert people.
• The research institute, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, had also identified ‘gaps’ across the coast of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha for installing more tide gauges for better monitoring of the sea and more accurate prediction of impending disasters like cyclones.

Bathymetry:

• Bathymetry is the study of underwater depth of ocean floors or lake floors. In other words, bathymetry is the underwater equivalent to hypsometry or topography.
• Bathymetric charts are typically produced to support safety of surface or subsurface navigation, and usually show seafloor relief or terrain as contour lines and selected depths (soundings), and typically also provide surface navigational information.

Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services:

• Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) is an autonomous organization of the Government of India, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, located in Pragathi Nagar, Hyderabad.
• It was established as an autonomous body in 2007 under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and is a unit of the Earth System Science Organization (ESSO).
• It is mandated to provide the best possible ocean information and advisory services to society, industry, government agencies and the scientific community through sustained ocean observations and constant improvements through systematic and focused research.

National Remote Sensing Centre:

• National Remote Sensing Centre, or NRSC, located in Hyderabad, Telangana is one of the centres of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
• NRSC manages data from aerial and satellite sources.

https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/incois-to-go-for-aerial-mapping-of-ocean-floor/article33937545.ece

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