Department of Space (DOS) established in June 1972 has Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as its executive wing that carries out space programme through its centers located at different parts of the country.

Main objective of the Indian space program includes development of satellites, payloads, launch vehicles, sounding rockets for the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of common masses.

Space Applications Centre (SAC), one of the centres of ISRO, situated at Ahmedabad does research and development in satellite communication and remote sensing. It also designs and builds communication, remote sensing and meteorological satellite payloads and satellite communication earth station equipments. The research work on applications of ISRO science missions is also one of the important area of SAC. The centre also conducts various courses on Satellite Meteorology/Satellite Communication under its capacity building program.

ISRO has undertaken development of a host of associated technologies such as Doppler Weather Radar, Automatic Weather Station etc., to help in validation and quality assurance of the space based data. The data from these composite systems (satellites and ground observations) need to be integrated in synergistic manner to provide a unique and independent data interpretation system for the country.

The Standing Committee on Meteorology (SC-M) had recommended establishing a data archival and dissemination centre for helping Indian users for their requirements in the fields of meteorology and oceanography. The data centre was recommended to be established at Space Applications Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad and was expected to provide data from national as well as international satellite missions. Subsequently, Meteorological and Oceanographic Satellite Data Archival Centre (MOSDAC) was established in March, 2006 at Space Applications Centre - Bopal Campus, Ahmedabad as a proof of concept. The data centre was established to keep all relevant data under a single framework for the ease of ingestion in the numerical models and other related studies.

The Standing Committee on Meteorology (SC-M) had recommended establishing a data archival and dissemination centre for helping Indian users for their requirements in the fields of meteorology and oceanography. The data centre was recommended to be established at Space Applications Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad and was expected to provide data from national as well as international satellite missions. Subsequently, Meteorological and Oceanographic Satellite Data Archival Centre (MOSDAC) was established in March, 2006 at Space Applications Centre - Bopal Campus, Ahmedabad as a proof of concept. The data centre was established to keep all relevant data under a single framework for the ease of ingestion in the numerical models and other related studies.

Over a period, ISRO has also established the real time data acquisition and data processing facility at SAC, Ahmedabad which acquires the data from ISRO science missions. These data are archived on MOSDAC. These data are then disseminated through web based service www.mosdac.gov.in to the users. The registered users have the privilege to put the requests and requests are responded by uploading the data to users ?FTP? area. Users are intimated through an e-mail about the readiness of the requested data which users can download from ftp.mosdac.gov.in.

1. Satellite/In-situ data under a single roof.

2. Metadata search through various mechanisms.

3. User friendly graphical interface.

4. Facilities like Bulletin Board, Tools & Services etc.

5. On-line registration form.

Presently, the data archived on MOSDAC are from Kalpana-1 (K1), INSAT-3A (3A), Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) and ArgoMet Stations (AMS). The list of various products is given on the site under ?Products?. The data access policy is given under ?Information?. However, there is no charge of data but it should be used only for research purpose. The commercial use of data is strictly not permitted. The users are requested to acknowledge MOSDAC for their research work if the data is used from MOSDAC.

For further information user can contact at: admin@mosdac.gov.in