As a part of USA – India civil space collaboration, NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) has been received by ISRO for final integration of the Earth observation satellite. The US Air Force C-17 plane carrying NISAR from NASA –JPL in California landed in Bengaluru today.
U.S. Consulate General in Chennai tweeted confirming this.
A press release by ISRO stated:
The integrated payload of NISAR comprising ISRO’s S-band Radar and NASA’s L-band Radar reached Bengaluru in the early hours of March 6, 2023 and moved to UR Rao Satellite Centre, Bengaluru for carrying out further testing and assembly with ISRO’s satellite bus.
NISAR Mission: NISAR is the first satellite mission to collect radar data in two microwave bandwidth regions, called the L-band and the S-band, to measure changes in our planet’s surface less than a centimetre across. This allows the mission to observe a wide range of Earth processes, from the flow rates of glaciers and ice sheets to the dynamics of earthquakes and volcanoes. It will use a sophisticated information-processing technique known as synthetic aperture radar to produce extremely high-resolution images.
NISAR will provide an unprecedented view of earth. Its data can help people worldwide better manage natural resources and hazards, as well as providing information for scientists to better understand the effects and pace of climate change. It will also add to our understanding of our planet’s hard outer layer, called its crust.
NISAR is planned to launch in 2024 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, into a near-polar orbit.
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