April 20, 2020 – The French Space Agency (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, CNES) has recently signed a contract with Airbus Defence and Space for the development and manufacture of the thermal infrared instrument for the TRISHNA satellite. TRISHNA (Thermal infraRed Imaging Satellite for High resolution Natural resource Assessment) will be the latest satellite in the joint Franco-Indian satellite fleet dedicated to climate monitoring and operational applications. CNES and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) are partnering on the development of an infrared observation system with high thermal resolution and high revisit capability including a satellite and associated ground segment. TRISHNA observations will enhance our understanding of the water cycle and improve management of the planet’s precious water resources, to better define the impacts of climate change, especially at local levels. In the international partnership workshare, ISRO will provide the platform, the visible and short wave infrared instrument and will be the prime contractor for the satellite, while CNES is co-responsible for the mission and will provide the thermal infrared instrument, to be developed by Airbus. The ground segment is shared between both countries. For this mission, Airbus is leveraging the latest innovations and synergies from other programmes (IASI-NG, CO3D…) to offer an affordable high performance instrument, with the aim of encouraging development of a commercial market.