Bengaluru: The joint NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite, launched by ISRO on July 30, has begun operations and sent its first images from space. The images offer a glimpse into the its powerful radar capabilities that will soon provide an unprecedented view of Earth’s surface.
The role of the satellite is to map wetlands, farmland, and urban areas with stunning clarity and send back high-resolution images.
Sean Duffy, acting administrator of NASA, highlighted the mission’s roots as a US-India partnership, calling the development a “testament to what can be achieved when we unite around a shared vision of innovation and discovery.”
“This is only the beginning,” he said, adding that the mission would yield insights critical not only for Earth science but also for building the foundation for planetary studies beyond our world.
One of the images captured by NISAR’s L-band radar on August 21 shows Maine’s Mount Desert Island. This L-band radar system was built by
Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The image revealed waterways, forest cover, and developed land with a resolution as fine as 15 feet. Just two days later, the satellite turned its sights to northeastern North Dakota, mapping wetlands along the Forest River and surrounding croplands.
The image from North Dakota revealed distinct circular patterns from centre-pivot irrigation, fallow fields, and patches of soy and corn. It highlighted how the system distinguishes between land cover types with precision.
“These initial images are just a preview of the hard-hitting science that NISAR will produce,” Nicky Fox, head of NASA’s science mission directorate said.
“We will be able to monitor Earth’s changing land and ice surfaces in unprecedented detail,” he added.
The radar’s long 25-centimeter wavelength allows it to penetrate forest canopies and track soil moisture or land deformation, vital for monitoring floods, landslides and earthquakes.
NISAR has also imaged land adjacent to northeastern North Dakota’s Forest River. The satellite is the first to be equipped with both L-band (from NASA) and S-band (from ISRO) radars. It will scan Earth’s land and ice twice every 12 days using a massive 12-meter reflector antenna that is the largest ever deployed by NASA in orbit.
Scientists said that full operations are scheduled to begin this November, with researchers expecting data that will transform disaster response, agriculture, and climate monitoring worldwide. For both NASA and ISRO, Nisar takes the era of collaborative Earth observation to a truly new global scale, they said.
