Shri Tapan Misra (DSc, Hon.), was the former Director of two of ISRO’s most prestigious centres of ISRO, the Space Applications Centre (SAC) and Physical Research Laboratory (PRL). He is acknowledged as a global expert in Imaging Radar SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) and is considered the father of the RISAT series of radar imaging satellites, which are the backbone of India’s many tactical, strategic and civilian applications. He has built SARs with payload mass from 5 kg to 1000 kg. He built SARs for both Airborne and Space use. He built SARs with passive as well as active antennas. He is a specialist in SAR system design, SAR signal processing and Motion correction algorithm. He has built India’s first NF antenna measurement system with time gating concept, suitable for in situ measurement of SAR antennas, both active and passive.
He built L and S band imaging radar for Chandrayaan-2. He is the lead designer of NASA ISRO dual-frequency SAR (NISAR) which is going to be launched by 2022. This spaceborne radar will enable global mapping of earth surface deformations (of even 1-2 millimetres) at an interval of 8 days.
He built India’s Oceansat series of Scatterometer radars to measure sea surface wind along with its direction. The data from this scatterometer are being used on a daily basis by global weather agencies like NOAA, NASA, IMD, EUMETSAT and many other private players. Scatterometer radar is crucial to predict cyclone tracks and landfall accurately, saving thousands of precious lives.
He also built India’s first High Throughput Satcom satellite (HTS) GSAT-11, India’s first indigenized hyperspectral imager for Chandrayan-2 and also Cartosat-2 series of high resolution reconnaissance satellites.
He guided many innovative applications of satcom and remote sensing technology.
He has wide experience in promoting many private enterprises and startups, spread over India, to produce space qualified MMIcs, systems and subsystems. He is well known for managing complex innovative programmes, from idea to reality and operation.
He has 8 granted patents, 5 granted copyrights, 40+ papers in the fields of
-SAR design, signal processing, motion compensation of airborne SARs
-NF antenna measurement, MW measurements
-Data compression and single pixel classification of hyperspectral imager.
He has edited 2 special issues of current science and one book.
