The Saral satellite was launched on February 25, 2013. A little more than one week after its launch, and even if the satellite is not yet on its final orbit, the data looks very promising. There's still a lot of analysis to do, to fine-tune all the parameters and processings, as for all new sensors. Results already obtained on a CNES test configuration seems to be in good agreement with the currently flying altimeters. The next few weeks will see the continuation of such analysis, the validation of ground processing software and a calibration/validation phase with the data available to the AltiKa science team.

This new satellite is the result of a cooperation between ISRO, the Indian space agency and CNES. It has been launched to take over Envisat's orbit (35 day repeat cycle), with an  altimeter, using a brand new technique, based on a radar emitting in the Ka band (35 GHz).