By R Anil Kumar
Paris, June 18, 2026. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 18, announced that India and France will jointly launch the TRISHNA satellite next year, a mission designed to contribute to global water and food security.
Addressing members of the Indian diaspora in Paris during the final leg of his visit to France and Slovakia, PM Modi said the satellite project was a natural extension of the cooperation showcased at the AI Summits co‑hosted last year in Paris and this year in Delhi.
TRISHNA (Thermal Infrared Imaging Satellite for High-resolution Natural resource Assessment) is an upcoming Earth observation satellite jointly developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the French space agency CNES. Scheduled to launch in 2027, the mission is designed to measure Earth’s surface temperature and manage water resources on a global scale.
Mission Overview
The primary goal of TRISHNA is to map and monitor land surface temperatures, evapotranspiration, glacier dynamics, and permafrost changes. This data will empower policymakers and agricultural industries to tackle critical water and food security issues and optimize resource management.
Key Technical Specifications
Orbit: Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 761 km, with an equator crossing local time of 12:30 PM.
Payloads: Features two cutting-edge instruments. CNES provides the thermal infrared payload, while ISRO provides the visible, near-infrared, and shortwave infrared payload.
Resolution: Provides a spatial resolution of 57 meters for land and coastal zones, and 1 km for oceanic and polar regions.
Revisit Rate: High-repeat imaging capability with a repeat interval of 8 days.
Operational Lifespan: Designed for an operational life of 5 years, with the possibility of a 2-year extension.
Scientific and Global Impact
TRISHNA will aid global initiatives such as the Global Water Watch and GEOGLAM (Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring). By delivering precise data on Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) and Essential Agricultural Variables (EAVs), the satellite will significantly improve climate models and support global climate change mitigation efforts.
PM Modi also emphasised that fifty or a hundred years from now, when this era is reviewed, it will be remembered as one driven by India’s aspirations.
He said today’s India was building the entire ecosystem of the future, investing across sectors that would shape the direction of the coming decades.
Referring to the “Bharat Innovates” programme held recently in Nice, PM Modi said the event had showcased India’s advancements in deep technology to the world.
He noted that 120 of India’s leading deep tech startups participated, facilitating around 1,400 B2B meetings and fostering global collaboration and innovation.
The Prime Minister underlined that relations between countries were no longer determined solely by trade, but also by trust.
He said that every nation sought reliable supply chains and stable partnerships, and that India was emerging as a trusted partner worldwide.
At the G7 meeting in Evian, PM Modi said he had emphasised partnerships based on trust and advocated equal collaboration with countries from the Global South.
He added that India’s message to the G7 Summit was clear: global governance would only be effective when inclusive, global growth would be sustainable when shared, and technology would be beneficial to humanity when trusted.
PM Modi also highlighted India’s achievements in digitisation, noting that the country had created unique digital health IDs for around 90 crore citizens, ensuring secure medical records and efficient healthcare delivery.
He said such achievements, including high‑speed internet reaching remote villages, would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago.
Members of the Indian diaspora in Paris expressed immense joy and emotion after meeting PM Modi, describing the occasion as proud and memorable. They said his presence made them feel connected to their homeland, even though they were thousands of miles away.
Taking to his official social media platform X, PM Modi wrote: “Reached Paris a short while ago to a warm welcome by the Indian diaspora. I am proud of their efforts in bringing India and France closer. The India–France partnership is vital for the progress of our planet.”
Earlier in the day, PM Modi addressed VivaTech 2026, one of Europe’s largest technology and innovation conferences. He also attended the G7 Summit in Evian and held bilateral meetings with several world leaders.
TRISHNA Mission: Advancing High-Resolution Thermal Imaging for Climate and Resource Management
The TRISHNA (Thermal Infra-Red Imaging Satellite for High-resolution Natural Resource Assessment) mission, a collaborative endeavour between ISRO and CNES, France, is engineered to deliver high spatial and high temporal resolution monitoring of Earth’s surface temperature, emissivity, biophysical and radiation variables for surface energy budgeting at regional to global scale. This mission addresses critical water and food security challenges, focusing on the impacts of human-induced climate change and efficient water resource management throughevapotranspiration monitoring.
TRISHNA’s primary objectives include detailed monitoring of the energy and water budgets of the continental biosphere for quantifying terrestrial water stress and water use and high-resolution observation of water quality and dynamics in coastal and inland waters. In addition, as secondary objectives, the TRISHNA mission will also help in a comprehensive assessment of urban heat islands, detection of thermal anomalies linked to volcanic activity and geothermal resources, and precise monitoring of snow-melt runoff and glacier dynamics. The mission will also provide valuable data on aerosol optical depth, atmospheric water vapor, and cloud cover.
The scientific and societal benefits of TRISHNA are extensive. In agricultural water management, TRISHNA science data products will help to assess irrigation water use, issue advisories for water savings and enhance crop water productivity through efficient and sustainable water management practices, and better micro-watershed management. For climate monitoring, the mission will track key indicators such as droughts, permafrost changes, and evapotranspiration rates. Urban planners will benefit from detailed urban heat island maps and heat alerts; while water quality monitoring will aid in detecting pollution in coastal and inland water bodies. It will also help in identifying sub-marine groundwater discharge at the coastal fringes. Additionally, TRISHNA will support the detection of sub-surface fires and assessment of geothermal resources; while cryosphere monitoring will evaluate snow cover and snow-melt patterns, contributing to improved hydrological models.
TRISHNA satellite is equipped with two primary payloads. The Thermal Infra-Red (TIR) payload, provided by CNES, features a four-channel long-wave infrared imaging sensor capable of high-resolution surface temperature and emissivity mapping. The Visible – Near Infra-Red – Short Wave Infra-Red (VNIR-SWIR) payload, developed by ISRO, includes seven spectral bands designed for detailed mapping of surface reflectance of VSWIR bands for generating important biophysical and radiation budget variables. The variables retrieved from the combination of payload data would help in solving surface energy balance to estimate surface heat fluxes.
The satellite will operate in a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 761 km, with a local time of 12:30 PM at the equator. This orbit will provide a spatial resolution of 57 meters for land and coastal areas and 1 km for oceanic and polar regions. The mission is designed for a 5-year operational life.
TRISHNA’s data will contribute to several global initiatives, such as GEOGLAM for agricultural monitoring, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and targets, and the Global Water Watch. Some of the mission’s outputs will serve as Essential Agricultural Variables (EAVs), and Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) for the global community.
TRISHNA mission is expected to signify a substantial advancement in remote sensing technology, addressing critical water and food security issues and providing essential data to help bring out sustainable solutions for policy/decision makers, watershed managers, agro-industries and farming community over inland and coastland. With its high-resolution high-repeat imaging capabilities, it would enhance our understanding of Earth’s natural processes and support global efforts in climate change mitigation through optimized resource management.
