NISAR, a NASA-ISRO synthetic aperture radar, was handed over to ISRO on Wednesday in a landmark development, as per recent reports. A milestone in the US-India space collaboration was marked by the supposed arrival of the satellite in a US Air Force C-17 carrier.
“Touchdown in Bengaluru! @ISRO receives NISAR (@NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) on a @USAirforce C-17 from @NASAJPL in California, setting the final stage for final integration of the Earth observation satellite, a true symbol of #USIndia civil space collaboration,” tweeted US Consulate General Chennai.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) are collaboratively developing NISAR, an Earth-observation satellite.
NISAR was conceived by ISRO and NASA in 2014 to exhibit the utilitarian potential of radar as a scientific instrument. The state-of-the-art scanning tool would help humankind analyse Earth’s land and ice surfaces more minutely than ever before, ANI reported.
The satellite will provide extensive data and information on the Earth’s surface changes, ecosystem disruptions, and natural hazards, thereby broadening our understanding of climate change and the planet’s intricate processes. Natural phenomena like melting glaciers, sea-level rise, and changes in climate storage, along with understanding the effects of climate change, would be achieved by this tool.
Data about soil moisture, crop growth, and land-use dynamics will be used for enhancing agricultural management and food security. The information obtained from NISAR on oil spills, deforestation, and urbanization will aid infrastructure monitoring and management.
The Indo-US satellite will be tentatively launched into a near-polar orbit from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in January 2024. The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) observatory will scan the entire planet in 12 days and will operate for at least 3 years.