‘Two-eyed' NISAR satellite will scan every piece of Earth
NEW DELHI: The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) programme cost the US and India over $1.5 billion. But there is an important question to be asked: What was the need for such a huge investment when hundreds of earth observation satellites are already in space? The answer is that the world had never developed a dual-frequency band satellite.
NISAR has two synthetic aperture radars of different bands that will operate in tandem. It will be a 'satellite with two eyes in space' keeping a hawk's eye on the Earth and scanning every piece of our planet for minute details.
'Our planet surface undergoes constant and meaningful change. Some change happens slowly. Some happens abruptly. Some changes are large, while some are subtle,' Karen St Germain, director of Nasa's Earth Science division, explained.
Calling NISAR 'the most sophisticated radar we've ever built and a model for the next generation of Earth-observation capabilities', Germain said, 'We'll see land substance and swelling, movement, deformation and melting of mountain glaciers and ice sheets covering both Greenland and Antarctica, and, of course, we'll see wildfires'.
It's 'a first-of-its-kind, jewel radar satellite that will change the way we study our home planet and better predict a natural disaster before it strikes,' Nasa's science mission chief Nicky Fox said ahead of liftoff.
Congratulating Isro and Nasa, space minister Jitendra Singh called the NISAR mission a 'game changer in precise management of disasters'.
The L-band SAR, provided by Nasa, uses higher wavelength microwaves and can penetrate tree cover for vegetation, sand and ice. It will capture minute details of surface undulations and see through dense forest cover. The S-band SAR, provided by Isro, which has a shorter wavelength, will capture larger features like crop fields and water bodies.
L-band and S-band SARs together will provide a comprehensive picture of the observed area — generating detailed imagery that is not possible even by integrating data of two separate satellites with different bands. Putting two radars of different bands on the same satellite was therefore the biggest engineering challenge for both Nasa and Isro, which they finally managed to overcome, though it took them 10 years to develop the 2,392-kg marvel.
Equipped with a 12-metre dish that will unfold in space, NISAR will record nearly all of Earth's land and ice twice every 12 days from an altitude of 747 km.
By picking up tiny changes in the vertical movement of the Earth's surface — as little as 1 cm (0.4 inches) — scientists will be able to detect precursors to natural and human-caused disasters, from earthquakes, landslides and volcanoes to aging infrastructure like dams and bridges.
The data from NISAR will be turned into three-dimensional maps that will not only help scientists and policymakers respond to natural disasters but also assist farmers by monitoring soil moisture and crop growth.
Indian space industry representative Anil Prakash, DG, SatCom Industry Association (SIA-India), hailed the NISAR mission and Indo-US space collaboration. "The successful Nasa-Isro collaboration on the $1.5 billion NISAR mission marks a defining moment in global space diplomacy.
It brings together cutting-edge American L-band SAR systems and India's expertise in engineering, integration, and cost-effective launch capability via GSLV-F16,' Prakash said.
"Isro's contribution, including the S-band radar, satellite bus, launch services, and mission operations, once again demonstrates India's ability to build and deliver complex systems with remarkable reliability. With a legacy of over 400 international satellite launches, Isro has emerged not just as a collaborator, but as a co-architect of next-generation Earth science missions,' he added.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
22 minutes ago
- The Hindu
U.S. in race with China to claim ‘best' part of Moon: NASA Chief
The United States is in a new space race with China to claim the most resource-rich part of the moon, NASA's interim administrator Sean Duffy said while announcing plans to install a nuclear reactor on the lunar surface by 2030. 'We're in a race to the moon, in a race with China to the moon. And to have a base on the moon, we need energy,' he said. Addressing a press conference on Tuesday (August 5, 2025) titled 'Unleashing American Drone Dominance' held by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which Mr. Duffy also leads. Mr. Duffy explained that energy is the key to setting up a permanent base, and that's why he wants a 100-kilowatt nuclear reactor placed on the moon within the next five years. He said such a reactor would generate about the same amount of electricity that a typical U.S. household uses in 3.5 days. The NASA administrator also said that there is a specific region on the moon that is especially valuable and that both the U.S. and China are eyeing it. 'There's a certain part of the moon that everyone knows is the best,' he said. 'We have ice there. We have sunlight there. We want to get there first and claim that for America' he said. Water ice and continuous sunlight make certain parts of the moon, especially near the south pole, ideal for setting up a permanent base. These conditions are important for both sustaining human life and generating power. Mr. Duffy also addressed concerns about launching nuclear material into space. He made it clear that the reactor would not be active when launched from Earth. 'We're not launching this live. That's obviously if you have any questions about that,' he said. While comparing the Artemis lunar programme to the historic Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s, Mr. Duffy admitted that NASA's current efforts haven't captured public attention in the same way. 'A lot of people don't even know what Artemis is. Everyone knew what Apollo was. We all knew. The whole world knew what Apollo was. We were going to the moon; Artemis is. we're going back,' Mr. Duffy said.
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Astronaut Butch Wilmore retires from NASA after spending extended 9 months in space
NASA astronaut Barry 'Butch' Wilmore has announced his retirement after working for 25 years with the American space agency and serving as a US Navy test pilot before becoming an astronaut. His announcement comes less than five months after he and astronaut Sunita Williams returned from a test mission aboard the International Space Station for over nine months, far longer than expected. Wilmore, 62, along with Williams, piloted the first crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 5, 2024 for a 8-day mission and gained worldwide traction when their spacecraft experienced several technical issues, including thruster outages and gas leaks. Wilmore and Williams stayed at the ISS for over nine months as NASA and Boeing attempted to investigate what went wrong in their spacecraft and whether Starliner would be safe to carry astronauts home. After 25 years at @NASA, flying in four different spacecraft, accumulating 464 days in space, astronaut and test pilot Butch Wilmore has retired from NASA. Please join us in congratulating Butch on his retirement, and thanking him for his dedicated service to the agency and… — NASA Space Operations (@NASASpaceOps) August 6, 2025 The space agency then decided that bringing the astronaut duo via the Boeing Starliner would be risky and announced in August last year that Williams and Wilmore would join the next International Space Station crew rotation along with two other astronauts on SpaceX's Crew-9 mission and will be aboard the ISS for some additional months. Wilmore and Williams returned to Earth in March after over nine months' stay in space. However, both the astronauts have maintained that they were prepared for their extended stay in space, saying they understood the risks and uncertainty associated with test flying a spacecraft, CNN reported. On his announcement to retire, Butch Wilmore said 'From my earliest days, I have been captivated by the marvels of creation, looking upward with insatiable curiosity,' according to a NASA news release. 'This curiosity propelled me into the skies and eventually to space, where the magnificence of the cosmos mirrored the glory of its creator in ways words can scarcely convey,' Wilmore added. Steve Koerner, acting head of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, said 'Wilmore's commitment to NASA's mission and dedication to human space exploration is truly exemplary.'
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Trump to shut down NASA missions that monitor carbon dioxide and plant heath
The Trump administration is moving to shut down two NASA missions that monitor a potent greenhouse gas and plant health, potentially shutting off an important source of data for scientists, policymakers and farmers. NASA said in an emailed statement on Wednesday that the missions were "beyond their prime mission" and being terminated "to align with the President's agenda and budget priorities".(AP File Photo) President Donald Trump's budget request for fiscal year 2026 includes no money for the Orbiting Carbon Observatories, which can precisely show where carbon dioxide is being emitted and absorbed and how well crops are growing. NASA said in an emailed statement on Wednesday that the missions were "beyond their prime mission" and being terminated "to align with the President's agenda and budget priorities". But the missions -- a free-flying satellite launched in 2014 and an instrument attached to the International Space Station in 2019 that include technology used in the Hubble Space Telescope -- still are more sensitive and accurate than any other systems in the world, operating or planned, and a "national asset" that should be saved, said David Crisp, a retired NASA scientist who led their development. They helped scientists discover, for example, that the Amazon rain forest emits more carbon dioxide than it absorbs, while boreal forests in Canada, Russia and places where permafrost is melting absorb more than they emit, Crisp said. They also can detect the "glow" of photosynthesis in plants, which helps monitor drought and predict food shortages that can lead to civil unrest and famine, he said. "This is really critical," Crisp said. "We are learning so much about this rapidly-changing planet." The decision to end the missions is "extremely shortsighted", said Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist at the University of Michigan. "The observations provided by these satellites ... (are) critical for managing growing climate change impacts around the planet, including in the US," he said. Looking to Congress Crisp and others hope Congress will vote to preserve funding for the missions, which are funded through the fiscal year that ends on September 30. A bill in the House closely aligns with the president's request and would eliminate the missions, while a Senate version preserves them. But with Congress in recess, it is unclear whether a budget will be adopted before the new fiscal year that begins on October 1. If it does not, Congress could adopt a resolution to continue current funding until a budget is passed, though some lawmakers fear the Trump administration could try to delay or withhold that money. Congressional Democrats warned acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy last month that it would be illegal to terminate missions or impound funds already appropriated by Congress. Experts said the administration's move to eliminate funding aligns with other actions to cut or bury climate science. "The principle seems to be that if we stop measuring climate change, it will just disappear from the American consciousness," said University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann. Backup plan Crisp and others also are trying to put together a coalition of outside partners -- including from Japan and Europe -- that could fund and operate the instrument attached to the space station. NASA said it will accept outside proposals through August 29. The free-flying satellite, though, is at risk of being brought down, meaning it would burn up in the atmosphere. National Public Radio first reported that NASA employees were making plans to end the missions. Crisp said advocates are hoping NASA also allows outside control of that satellite, which covers more of the globe, but there are legal hurdles to overcome because it would mean giving control of a US satellite to a group that could include foreign partners. "We are going out to billionaires. We are going out to foundations," Crisp said. 'But ... it is a really, really bad idea to try and push it off onto private industry or private individuals or private donors. It just does not make sense.'
