What Is NISAR? The NASA-ISRO Mission That Will Launch In A Few Months

NASA and ISRO are preparing to launch a new low Earth orbit observation satellite, the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), in the coming months. The satellite aims to provide better insights into the Earth’s dynamic surface. The NISAR satellite will utilise Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology to capture detailed images of Earth's surface. It will provide critical data to monitor the movement of Earth's crust before and after natural disasters, track glacial motion, and observe changes in ecosystems.

The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) is a low Earth orbit observation satellite that will map the entire globe in just 12 days, providing spatially and temporally consistent data to monitor changes in Earth's ecosystems, ice mass, vegetation biomass, sea level rise, groundwater, and natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and landslides.

Equipped with both L- and S-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), the mission combines advanced technologies from both NASA and ISRO.

NASA is responsible for providing the L-Band SAR payload system, while ISRO has supplied the S-Band SAR payload.

According to ISRO, the mission of this system is to study the Earth primarily in three disciplines — ecosystems (vegetation and the carbon cycle), deformation (solid Earth studies), and cryosphere sciences (primarily as related to climatic drivers and effects on sea level).

NASA, on the other hand, stated that the images captured by NISAR will be so detailed that they will  “show how much small plots of land and ice are moving, down to fractions of an inch”. The satellite will image all solid surfaces of the earth twice every 12 days, allowing scientists the chance to monitor the changes more closely and have a fuller picture of how our planet’s surface changes over time.

“The NISAR satellite won’t tell us when earthquakes will happen. Instead, it will help us better understand which areas of the world are most susceptible to significant earthquakes,” Mark Simons, US solid Earth science lead for the mission, was quoted as saying by NASA.

The UR Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru, which oversees the ISRO components of the mission, is providing the spacecraft bus. The launch vehicle is being supplied by ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, while launch services are managed through ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre.