India and France are to build and launch in 2005 a climate monitoring satellite called Megha Tropiques.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and French space agency CNES will use the satellite to study climate patterns to help develop a scientific model for weather forecasting that could benefit farmers, planners and industry.
ISRO and CNES say that the satellite will help the countries to gain a bigger share of the remote sensing market, estimated to be worth $12 billion by 2005.
India already sells data annually - primarily from the Indian remote sensing satellite fleet - worth $3.5 million to New Delhi.
Source: Flight International