changeadminISRO is set to launch NISAR, a joint satellite with NASA, which will map changes to Earth’s surface, helping improve crop management, natural hazard monitoring, and tracking of sea ice and glaciers.
As the first joint satellite mission between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the NISAR launch is the result of strong technical cooperation between the two space organisations.
NISAR launch will advance India-USA space cooperation and benefit both countries in areas related to disaster response, climate change and agriculture.
The NISAR satellite will scan the entire globe to provide high-resolution data at 12-day intervals, enabling a wide range of applications for climate scientists, researchers, and policymakers.
NISAR can detect even small changes in the Earth’s surface, such as ground deformation, ice sheet movement and vegetation dynamics. Further applications include sea ice classification, ship detection, shoreline monitoring, storm characterisation, changes in soil moisture, mapping & monitoring of surface water resources and disaster response.
NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) will be launched by ISRO’s GSLV-F16 on July 30, 2025, at 1740 hrs IST from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC SHAR), Sriharikota. GSLV-F16 will inject the NISAR satellite into a 743 km Sun-synchronous orbit with an inclination of 98.4 degrees.
NISAR, weighing 2392 kg, is a unique earth observation satellite and the first satellite to observe the earth with a dual frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (NASA’s L-band and ISRO’s S-band), both using NASA’s 12m unfurlable mesh reflector antenna, integrated to ISRO’s modified I3K satellite bus. NISAR will observe Earth with a swath of 242 km and high spatial resolution, using SweepSAR technology for the first time.
The NISAR satellite will generate more data daily than any previous Earth satellite from either agency, as the radars will generate about 80 terabytes of data products per day. That’s roughly enough data to fill about 150 512-gigabyte hard drives each day. The information will be processed, stored, and distributed via the cloud, making it accessible to all.
Two synthetic aperture radars (SARs) aboard NISAR will detect minuscule changes in the planet’s surface. The spacecraft will bounce microwave signals off Earth’s surface and receive the return signals on a radar antenna reflector measuring 39 feet (12 meters).
The low-Earth satellite’s ability to “see” through clouds and light rain, day and night, will enable data users to continuously monitor disaster-prone areas and determine how quickly glaciers and ice sheets are changing.
NISAR can aid in disaster management and potentially give decision-makers time to prepare for possible natural calamities such as earthquakes and volcanoes.
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