NISAR

March 27, 2021

NASA and ISRO are collaborating on developing a satellite called NISAR, which will detect movements of the planet’s surface as small as 0.4 inches over areas about half the size of a tennis court.

About:

  • NISAR is an SUV-sized satellite that is being jointly developed by the space agencies of the US and India.

  • The name NISAR is short for NASA-ISRO-SAR. SAR here refers to the synthetic aperture radar that NASA will use to measure changes in the surface of the Earth.
    • Essentially, SAR refers to a technique for producing high-resolution images.

    • Because of the precision, the radar can penetrate clouds and darkness, which means that it can collect data day and night in any weather.



  • The partnership agreement was signed between NASA and ISRO in 2014.
    • NASA will provide one of the radars for the satellite, a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers and a payload data subsystem.

    • ISRO, on the other hand, will provide the spacecraft bus, the second type of radar (called the S-band radar), the launch vehicle and associated launch services.



  • The satellite will be launched in 2022 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India, into a near-polar orbit.

  • It will scan the globe every 12 days over the course of its three-year mission of imaging the Earth’s land, ice sheets and sea ice to give an “unprecedented” view of the planet.

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