Last year in August, BRICS, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, signed an agreement on cooperation in sharing remote sensing satellite data. This Agreement enables building a virtual constellation of specified remote sensing satellites of BRICS space agencies and their respective ground stations will receive the data. This will contribute in strengthening multilateral cooperation among BRICS space agencies in meeting the challenges faced by mankind, such as global climate change, major disasters and environmental protection.
In a latest, a Joint Committee on Space Cooperation has been launched by BRICS, under the BRICS Remote Sensing Satellite Constellation agreement. This committee was launched during a virtual meeting of top officials of BRICS space agencies on Wednesday this week.
BRICS space agencies include — Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), China National Space Administration (CNSA); South African National Space Agency (SANSA), Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), and State Space Corporation “Roscosmos” of Russia.On August 18, 2021, Indian space agency, ISRO had signed an agreement with other BRICS space agencies to develop a virtual remote sensing constellation. The constellation consists of 6 existing satellites, two of which- Resourcesat-2 and 2A- are contributions of ISRO.
Other satellites in the constellation are Gaofen-6 and Ziyuan III 02, both developed by China, CBERS-4, jointly developed by Brazil and China, and the Kanopus-V type developed by Russia. Ahead of the launch of Resourcesat-2 in 2016, ISRO had said that it is extremely useful for monitoring vegetation and water resources and also has applications in mapping and monitoring land resources, rural and urban development plans, crop production estimation, forest cover mapping and disaster management support