NASA and ISRO Join Hands to Launch NISAR Satellite
NISAR is acronym for Nasa Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar. NISAR is a billion-dollar satellite designed primarily to reveal Earth's heartbeat. On 30th July 2025, a day when Donald Trump, President of USA imposed 25% tariff on India to be effective from, 1 August 2025; India’s space agency ISRO joined hands with NASA, the space agency of USA to launch NISAR satellite. NISAR more specifically is designed to reveal a detailed view of the Earth allowing scientists to observe and measure some of the planet's most complex processes, including ecosystem disturbances, ice-sheet collapse, natural hazards, sea level rise, and groundwater issues. It will also help in ship detection, shoreline monitoring, storm characterisation, changes in soil moisture, mapping and monitoring of surface water resources. The satellite houses a huge Synthetic Aperture Radar, the first-of-its-kind installed in space, that will systematically map Earth, measuring all changes of planet's surface down to the last centimeter.
NISAR is an orbiter with 2 key
instruments, namely L-SAR (24cm wavelength) and S-SAR (12cm wavelength) will
circle the earth at an altitude of 743 km and at an inclination of 98.4°. Data from
NISAR can help people worldwide to better manage earth’s natural resources and
hazards more specifically climate monitoring and disaster response. NISAR will
also provide information to scientists to better understand the effects and
pace of climate change. NISAR will also boost our ability to understand our
planet's hard outer layer, called its crust. NISAR will be the first radar of
its kind installed in space to systematically map Earth, using two different
radar frequencies equipped with dual-frequency synthetic aperture radar
(L-band and S-band) to measure changes of our planet’s surface. Synthetic Aperture
Radar (SAR) refers to a technique for producing fine-resolution images from a resolution-limited
radar system.
NISAR mission, is a joint venture between ISRO and NASA,
costing US$ 1.5 billion that is meant to help not just USA and India, but
worldwide. NISAR satellite weighing a massive 2393-kilogram is meant to orbit
the planet earth every 97 minutes, and map earth every 12 days. It was launched
aboard ISRO's work horse launch vehicle Geosynchronous Satellite Launch
Vehicle (GSLV-F16) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre
in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh at 5:40 pm IST. This is the first time that a
GSLV has put a satellite in a sun-synchronous polar orbit. This combination of NASA's
L-band radar and ISRO's S-band radar will enable Nisar to capture the faintest
shifts on Earth’s surface whether under forests, clouds, or even in darkness
detecting movements as small as a few millimetres.
The synthetic aperture radar combines multiple measurements,
taken as a radar flies overhead, to sharpen the scene below. It works like
conventional radar, which uses microwaves to detect distant surfaces and
objects, but steps up the data processing to reveal properties and
characteristics at high resolution. NISAR’s freely accessible, nearly real-time
data will empower Indian researchers, disaster managers, and policymakers to detect
and monitor glacier movements in the Himalayas, fault-line shifts before
earthquakes, track agricultural cycles, and manage water resources more
effectively. This will help India is set to improve forecasting for floods,
droughts, and landslides, enabling the government to develop a rapid response
and informed policy decisions. The satellite launch, dubbed a historic mission, not only cements India’s position as a leader in space-based climate monitoring
but also demonstrates how international collaboration can drive scientific
progress for the collective good.
The development of the satellite that has spanned just over a
decade is a result of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) agreement
signed on September 30, 2014. The S-Band SAR and L-Band SAR were independently
developed, integrated, and tested by ISRO and Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(JPL) of NASA, respectively. The Integrated Radar Instrument Structure (IRIS),
comprising of both SAR systems and additional payload elements, was assembled
and tested at JPL/NASA before being delivered to ISRO. The mainframe satellite
elements and all payloads were then assembled, integrated, and tested at ISRO’s
U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC).
The NISAR mission comprises of four main phases, namely launch,
deployment, commissioning, and science operations. After today’s launch;
in the deployment phase, a 12-meter diameter reflector will be extended
9 meters from the satellite using a complex deployable boom developed by
JPL/Nasa. The 90-day commissioning phase divided into sub-phases involves
system checks and calibrations. These in-orbit checkouts of mainframe elements are
meant to prepare the observatory for science operations, followed by JPL
engineering payload and instrument checkout. In the next science operations phase
the satellite’s mission's objective are fullfilled with regular orbit
manoeuvres, calibration/validation activities, and coordinated observation
plans for L-band and S-band instruments managed jointly by JPL and ISRO. During
this phase, the science orbit will be maintained via regular manoeuvres,
scheduled to avoid or minimise conflicts with science observations. Extensive
calibration and validation activities will take place.
NISAR has helped India to set a new benchmark in
technological leadership and global environmental stewardship, offering its
citizens and the world the means to better understand and protect the
planet. NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar or NISAR satellite launched from the
second launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDPC)
at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh put the satellite 18 minutes later, into a
sun-synchronous orbit. NISAR satellite that has a mission life of atleast five
years, is the first satellite that has been jointly developed by ISRO and
the NASA. Casey Swails, Deputy Associate Administrator at NASA, said NISAR will
give decision-makers the tools to monitor critical infrastructure, respond
faster and smarter to natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and
landslides, as well as map farmland to improve crop output and more. NASA said
that mission controllers for the NASA-ISRO NISAR mission had received full
acquisition of signal from the spacecraft.
The satellite’s dual-frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar,
both NASA’s L-band and ISRO’s S-band use NASA’s 12-metre unfurlable mesh
reflector antenna, integrated with ISRO’s modified I3K satellite bus. It will
observe earth with a swathe of 242 km and high spatial resolution, using
SweepSAR technology for the first time. As per ISRO chief, NISAR satellite will
be able to monitor tectonic movements accurately. NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) built the radar antenna reflection, radar antenna boom, L-Band
SAR and engineering payload, while ISRO built the spacecraft bus, solar array
S-band SAR and the launch vehicle. NISAR mission will demonstrate Indian space
engineering capabilities for Earth observation on a global scale, a top
scientist said.
The NISAR mission data will be accessible for download
worldwide by users, said Radha Krishna Kavuluru, former Ground Segment Engineer
and Ex-Project Manager of NISAR. He also said, the satellite will transmit
extensive data covering the Earth, including Antarctica, the North Pole, and
oceans. Another scientist said that NISAR will produce an enormous volume of
high-resolution data daily, providing critical insights for scientists,
disaster management authorities, policymakers, and environmental researchers. He
further said, “It will generate a tremendous amount of data per day, which will
be greatly useful to many decision makers, disaster managers, and others who
want to make a detailed study of the Earth. As of today, it is going to be the
most advanced Earth observation satellite.”
NASA and ISRO Join Hands to Launch NISAR Satellite
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