Nisar: Isro and Nasa set for launch of ‘first-of-its-kind’ satellite
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New NASA satellite to assist natural disaster recovery
NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization are set to launch the NISAR satellite as soon as Wednesday. The satellite will circle and scan the entire Earth every 12 days, using two radar systems to monitor changes down to the tiniest details. The tech can see through clouds, trees, the dark and even wildfire smoke, helping detect changes around natural disasters like flooding and hurricanes.NASA says the satellite can even help farmers manage harvests and livestock.Though the launch is not happening on U.S. soil, it marks a first-of-its-kind collaboration between NASA and the ISRO in India.
NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization are preparing to launch the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite from India’s southeastern coast as soon as Wednesday morning, marking a pioneering collaboration between the two space agencies to monitor Earth’s surface in unprecedented detail.The NISAR satellite will circle and scan the entire Earth every 12 days, using two radar systems to monitor changes down to the tiniest details. “It will give us changes that are taking place on the Earth’s surface at the centimeter level,” NASA scientist Shanna McClain said, “We can then see things regarding landslides, tectonic movements that are precursors to earthquakes, magma movement, volcanic eruption, and so much more.”NISAR’s tech can see through clouds, trees, the dark and even wildfire smoke, helping detect changes around natural disasters like flooding and hurricanes.”It can help us,” McClain said. “Not only can we help in the response time frame, but also, frankly, recover faster and ideally build more resilient communities.”NASA says the satellite can even help farmers manage harvests and livestock.Though the launch is not happening on U.S. soil, it marks a first-of-its-kind collaboration between NASA and the ISRO. India provided one of the radar systems on the satellite, as well as the rocket and spacecraft body for the launch. Watch the latest on NASA space missions:
NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization are preparing to launch the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite from India’s southeastern coast as soon as Wednesday morning, marking a pioneering collaboration between the two space agencies to monitor Earth’s surface in unprecedented detail.
The NISAR satellite will circle and scan the entire Earth every 12 days, using two radar systems to monitor changes down to the tiniest details.
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“It will give us changes that are taking place on the Earth’s surface at the centimeter level,” NASA scientist Shanna McClain said, “We can then see things regarding landslides, tectonic movements that are precursors to earthquakes, magma movement, volcanic eruption, and so much more.”
NISAR’s tech can see through clouds, trees, the dark and even wildfire smoke, helping detect changes around natural disasters like flooding and hurricanes.
“It can help us,” McClain said. “Not only can we help in the response time frame, but also, frankly, recover faster and ideally build more resilient communities.”
NASA says the satellite can even help farmers manage harvests and livestock.
Though the launch is not happening on U.S. soil, it marks a first-of-its-kind collaboration between NASA and the ISRO. India provided one of the radar systems on the satellite, as well as the rocket and spacecraft body for the launch.
Watch the latest on NASA space missions:
Nisar: Isro and Nasa set for launch of ‘first-of-its-kind’ satellite
India and US launch ‘first-of-its-kind’ satellite. Data from the joint mission by Indian Space agency Isro and Nasa will help not just the two countries but the world in preparing and dealing with disasters. The 2,392kg Nasa-Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar (Nisar) was launched at 17:40 India time (12:10 GMT) on Wednesday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in south India. It will be the first in space to watch Earth using two different radar frequencies – Nasa’s L-band and Isro’s S-band.
8 hours ago Share Save Geeta Pandey • @geetapandeybbc BBC News, Delhi Share Save
NASA Nasa calls Nisar, their newest satellite, the ‘most sophisticated radar we’ve ever built.’
Indian and US space agencies have launched a new satellite which will keep a hawk’s eye on Earth, detecting and reporting even the smallest changes in land, sea, and ice sheets. Data from the joint mission by Indian Space agency Isro and Nasa will help not just the two countries but the world in preparing and dealing with disasters. The 2,392kg Nasa-Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar (Nisar) was launched at 17:40 India time (12:10 GMT) on Wednesday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in south India. The satellite comes close on the heels of the Axiom-4 mission which saw an Indian astronaut going to the International Space Station for the first time.
Nasa, which already has more than two dozen observation satellites in space, says Nisar is the “most sophisticated radar we’ve ever built” and that it will be able to spot the “minutest of changes anywhere in the world”. The “first-of-its-kind satellite” will be the first in space to watch Earth using two different radar frequencies – Nasa’s L-band and Isro’s S-band. The satellite will be shot into the “sun-synchronous polar orbit”, which means it will pass over the same areas of Earth at a regular interval, observing and mapping changes to our planet’s surface, former Nasa scientist Mila Mitra told the BBC. Nasa and Isro say Nisar will revisit the same spot every 12 days. It will detect changes and land, ice, or coastal shifts as small as centimetres, says Ms Mitra. Repeated scans will generate rich data, helping Nasa and Isro ground stations support disaster preparedness and track climate change impacts, she added. Scientists say Earth’s surface is constantly changing due to natural and human activities, and even small shifts can impact the planet. “Some of these changes happen slowly, some abruptly, some are small while some are subtle,” Nasa’s director of Earth Sciences Karen St Germain, who is in India for the launch, told a pre-launch press conference. “With Nisar, we’ll see the precursors to natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides and volcanoes; we’ll see land subsidence and swelling, movements and deformations, melting of glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica; and we’ll see forest fires. “We’ll also be able to spot human-induced land changes caused by farming and infrastructure projects such as buildings and bridges,” she said.
Jonny Kim/X The joint mission follows weeks after Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla (bottom row, third from left) visited the ISS
‘Today’s the day!’ $1.5 bn ISRO-NASA partnered NISAR satellite set for liftoff
NISAR is the first satellite to be mounted with two SARs, operating in different frequency bands. It will provide high-resolution images of the Earth for scientists to better understand the processes involved in natural hazards and catastrophic events. Out of the total project cost, ISRO has contributed Rs 469.4 crore ($53.69 million) for the satellite and will also bear the costs of its launch. All data will be available within 1-2 days after observation. In the event of emergencies, the turnaround time for observations will be significantly reduced.
A first-of-its-kind, NISAR is the most powerful SAR satellite providing high-resolution images of the Earth for scientists to better understand the processes involved in natural hazards and catastrophic events, such as earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic eruptions. This feature will be possible due to its cloud penetration abilities.
New Delhi: “GSLV-F16/NISAR: Today’s the day!” the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement ahead of the launch of the unique Earth observation satellite. At 5.40 pm on Wednesday, NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) will lift off onboard India’s heavyweight rocket, Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F16).
Costing a whopping $1.5 billion, NISAR is the most expensive Earth observation satellite in the world. Out of the total project cost, ISRO has contributed Rs 469.4 crore ($53.69 million) for the satellite and will also bear the costs of its launch.
According to NASA, the NISAR satellite will also provide crucial data on changes in ice sheets, glaciers, and sea ice and will also improve scientific understanding of how deforestation, permafrost loss and fires impact the carbon cycle.
“The data will be accessible to all users across a range of disciplines, with potential applicability in disaster response, infrastructure monitoring and agricultural decision support,” NASA said in a mission document.
Data from NISAR could change approach toward disaster preparedness and management. All data will be available within 1-2 days after observation. In the event of emergencies, the turnaround time for observations will be significantly reduced to merely a few hours.
Union Minister for Science and Technology and Space Jitendra Singh had told the Lok Sabha that over the last decade, India has presented before the world a unique model space application that is “no longer confined to just rocket launching”.
“NISAR, which is a partnership between ISRO and NASA, is going to be a gamechanger in improving our disaster responses,” he said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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NASA-ISRO Satellite Lifts Off to Track Earth’s Changing Surfaces
NISAR will use two advanced radar instruments to track changes in Earth’s forests and wetland ecosystems. It will monitor deformation and motion of the planet’s frozen surfaces, and detect the movement of Earth’s crust down to fractions of an inch. NISAR is the first free-flying space mission to feature two radar instruments — an L-band system and an S-band radar. Unlike optical sensors, the satellite will be able to “see” through clouds, making it possible to monitor the surface during storms, as well as in darkness and light. The data NISar collects also can help researchers assess how forests, wetlands, agricultural areas, and permafrost change over time. The mission is a collaboration between NASA and ISRO for the agency by Caltech, NASA JPL, and the Ahmedabad, India-based ISRO Space Applications Centre. The satellite will begin a roughly 90-day commissioning phase during which it will deploy its 39-foot radar antenna reflector.
“ISRO’s GSLV has precisely injected NISAR satellite into the intended orbit, 747 kilometers. I am happy to inform that this is GSLV’s first mission to Sun-synchronous polar orbit. With this successful launch, we are at the threshold of fulfilling the immense scientific potential NASA and ISRO envisioned for the NISAR mission more than 10 years ago,” said ISRO Chairman V Narayanan. “The powerful capability of this radar mission will help us study Earth’s dynamic land and ice surfaces in greater detail than ever before.”
The mission’s two radars will monitor nearly all the planet’s land- and ice-covered surfaces twice every 12 days, including areas of the polar Southern Hemisphere rarely covered by other Earth-observing radar satellites. The data NISAR collects also can help researchers assess how forests, wetlands, agricultural areas, and permafrost change over time.
“Observations from NISAR will provide new knowledge and tangible benefits for communities both in the U.S. and around the world,” said Karen St. Germain, director, Earth Science division at NASA Headquarters. “This launch marks the beginning of a new way of seeing the surface of our planet so that we can understand and foresee natural disasters and other changes in our Earth system that affect lives and property.”
The NISAR satellite is the first free-flying space mission to feature two radar instruments — an L-band system and an S-band system. Each system is sensitive to features of different sizes and specializes in detecting certain attributes. The L-band radar excels at measuring soil moisture, forest biomass, and motion of land and ice surfaces, while S-band radar excels at monitoring agriculture, grassland ecosystems, and infrastructure movement.
Together, the radar instruments will enhance all of the satellite’s observations, making NISAR more capable than previous synthetic aperture radar missions. Unlike optical sensors, NISAR will be able to “see” through clouds, making it possible to monitor the surface during storms, as well as in darkness and light.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California provided the L-band radar, and ISRO’s Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad developed the S-band radar. The NISAR mission marks the first time the two agencies have co-developed hardware for an Earth-observing mission.
“We’re proud of the international team behind this remarkable satellite. The mission’s measurements will be global but its applications deeply local, as people everywhere will use its data to plan for a resilient future,” said Dave Gallagher, director, NASA JPL, which manages the U.S. portion of the mission for NASA. “At its core is synthetic aperture radar, a technology pioneered at NASA JPL that enables us to study Earth night and day, through all kinds of weather.”
Including L-band and S-band radars on one satellite is an evolution in SAR airborne and space-based missions that, for NASA, started in 1978 with the launch of Seasat. In 2012, ISRO began launching SAR missions starting with Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT-1), followed by RISAT-1A in 2022, to support a wide range of applications in India.
In the coming weeks, the spacecraft will begin a roughly 90-day commissioning phase during which it will deploy its 39-foot (12-meter) radar antenna reflector. This reflector will direct and receive microwave signals from the two radars. By interpreting the differences between the two, researchers can discern characteristics about the surface below. As NISAR passes over the same locations twice every 12 days, scientists can evaluate how those characteristics have changed over time to reveal new insights about Earth’s dynamic surfaces.
The NISAR mission is an equal collaboration between NASA and ISRO. Managed for the agency by Caltech, NASA JPL leads the U.S. component of the project and is providing the mission’s L-band SAR. NASA also is providing the radar reflector antenna, the deployable boom, a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder, and payload data subsystem.
Space Applications Centre Ahmedabad, ISRO’s lead center for payload development, is providing the mission’s S-band SAR instrument and is responsible for its calibration, data processing, and development of science algorithms to address the scientific goals of the mission. U R Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru, which leads the ISRO components of the mission, is providing the spacecraft bus. The launch vehicle is from ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, launch services are through ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre, and satellite operations are by ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network. National Remote Sensing Centre in Hyderabad is responsible for S-band data reception, operational products generation, and dissemination.
To learn more about NISAR, visit:
https://nisar.jpl.nasa.gov/
NASA ISRO Nisar Satellite Launch Live: India successfully launches NASA-ISRO NISAR satellite to map Earth’s land and ice
The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, or NISAR satellite, is the first such collaboration between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and U.S. space agency NASA. It took off from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 1210 GMT or 1740 IST atop a medium-lift rocket, marking a milestone in space cooperation and bolstering India’s profile in low-cost, high-impact satellite missions. It is the world’s first radar imaging satellite to use two radar frequencies – the L-band provided by NASA and the S-band developed by ISRO – to track minute changes in the Earth’s surface, including movements as small as a centimetre.
ISRO launched on Wednesday a $1.5 billion, first-of-its-kind radar imaging satellite built in collaboration with NASA, deploying it to help enhance global monitoring of climate change and natural disasters.
FAQs:
1. What is the NISAR satellite?
NISAR stands for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar. It’s an Earth observation satellite jointly developed by ISRO and NASA to study global environmental changes.
2. When and where is NISAR being launched?
NISAR is scheduled to be launched at 5:40 pm on Wednesday from the second launch pad at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
3. Which rocket is carrying NISAR?
The satellite will be carried by GSLV-F16, a three-stage Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle.
4. What is unique about this mission?
It is the first time a GSLV rocket is sending a satellite into a Sun-synchronous Polar Orbit. Also, it’s a rare collaboration between ISRO and NASA using both Indian and American radar systems.
5. What will NISAR study?
It will monitor forest changes, glacier movements, mountain shifts, land deformation, and ocean regions. It will scan the entire globe every 12 days.
6. How does the satellite work?
It uses dual-frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar: S-Band from ISRO and L-Band from NASA, to capture high-resolution images using the SweepSAR technique.
7. What is the mission duration?
NISAR has a planned life of 5 years.
8. Who controls the satellite after launch?
ISRO will handle the satellite’s operations and command, while NASA will manage the orbit manoeuvre and radar operation plans.
9. How will the data be used?
Ground stations of both ISRO and NASA will collect and process the data, which will be shared with global scientists and researchers.
10. What is the significance of this mission?
It strengthens India-US space cooperation and helps the world monitor environmental changes with unmatched detail and frequency.
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