ISLAMABAD – Indian satellites that could have provided high resolutionimagery from Balakot are the RADARSATS, Cartosats, Microsat-R, HySIS andeven the geo-stationary satellite that looks constantly over India.

India’s best bet, the RISAT-1 that had day and night viewing capability,however, had imploded in orbit in September 2016 before dying in 2017.

A replacement is on its way later this year.

But according to sources, RISAT-2, a nimble Israeli spy satellite thatIndia launched in 2009 continues to function and should have been able toprovide high resolution images of Balakot.

There is also a large fleet of eight ultra-high resolution imagingsatellites called Cartosats which can image objects of less than a meter inlength. These eyes-in-the-sky map the world every day and can even lock onto a target to provide high-resolution videos.

As recently as January 24, 2019, ISRO launched Microsat-R, a satellite for”defence research” at a 277 km altitude, which should be able to provideimages of the best resolution since it flies at half the altitude of thePlanet Labs’ Dove constellation.

No other details were released on the 740 kg satellite. This is possiblythe lowest orbit on which ISRO has an Indian satellite.

In addition, on November 29, 2018, ISRO launched the HySIS satellite or theHyper Spectral Imaging Satellite, a tiny 380 kg “hawk’s eye in the sky”.

It can take images so sharp that it can distinguish “if structures aremade of aluminium or other metals”, the space agency had said.

While these images remain locked away in computers at the NationalTechnical Research Organisation, it is open season for politicians makingclaims of terrorist casualties.