{"id":56960,"date":"2025-07-27T12:09:21","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T06:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=56960"},"modified":"2025-07-28T12:36:44","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T07:06:44","slug":"nisar-satellite-a-landmark-nasa-isro-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/nisar-satellite-a-landmark-nasa-isro-collaboration\/","title":{"rendered":"NISAR Satellite &#8211; A Landmark NASA-ISRO Collaboration for Earth Observation"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>NISAR Satellite Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch the NISAR satellite from Sriharikota onboard a GSLV Mk-II rocket.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Introduction<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India and the United States are set to launch their most ambitious joint space mission to date, the <\/span><b>NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> satellite.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scheduled for lift-off on <\/span><b>July 30 from Sriharikota<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> onboard a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/geosynchronous-satellite-launch-vehicle\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>GSLV<\/b><\/a><b> Mk-II<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the Rs. 12,000-crore mission has been over a decade in the making and is being considered as one of the world\u2019s most advanced Earth observation missions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NISAR will provide real-time, high-resolution radar data on land deformation, biomass, disaster impact, crop patterns, and climate-related changes, not just for India but globally.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It combines NASA\u2019s strength in long-range radar systems with ISRO\u2019s spaceflight engineering and S-band radar technology.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>About NISAR Satellite<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>First Dual-Band Radar Satellite for Earth Observation<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NISAR is the world\u2019s <\/span><b>first Earth-observing satellite with dual-frequency synthetic aperture radar (SAR)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>L-band radar<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (1.257 GHz) from NASA can penetrate dense forests and soil layers to detect ground deformation and subsurface movement.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>S-band radar<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (3.2 GHz) from ISRO is optimised for surface-level changes like crop growth, biomass estimates, and water levels.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This dual-frequency advantage allows for all-weather, day-and-night imaging, even through clouds, smoke, or vegetation cover.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Wide Swath and High Resolution<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NISAR\u2019s <\/span><b>radar swath width is 240 km<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, allowing it to scan large areas in one go.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It offers a spatial resolution of <\/span><b>3-10 metres<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and vertical displacement mapping accuracy down to <\/span><b>centimetres<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, enabling early detection of phenomena like <\/span><b>land subsidence in cities<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every spot on Earth will be revisited <\/span><b>once every 12 days<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, providing consistent monitoring.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Scientific and Societal Applications<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NISAR is designed to support research and operations across <\/span><b>six broad themes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Solid Earth Processes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; Tracking earthquakes, landslides, and land deformation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Ecosystems<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; Monitoring forests, woody biomass, and biodiversity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Ice and Snow Dynamics<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; Measuring glacial movements and polar ice thickness.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Coastal and Ocean Monitoring<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; Tracking shoreline erosion, oil spills, and storm surges.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Disaster Response<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; Providing near-real-time damage maps after floods, quakes, or cyclones.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Agriculture and Infrastructure<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; Supporting food security and monitoring subsidence near dams, roads, and reservoirs.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During natural disasters, NISAR can provide <\/span><b>damage proxy maps within five hours,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> crucial for emergency relief planning and response.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>India-Specific Enhancements<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While NISAR will operate globally at the L-band, ISRO will routinely operate the <\/span><b>S-band radar over Indian territory<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, enabling:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enhanced biomass and soil moisture mapping<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Improved agricultural forecasting<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ionospheric noise correction for high-precision imagery<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All of this aligns with India\u2019s national needs in <\/span><b>agriculture, disaster management, forestry, and rural development<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Technical Design and Deployment<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once launched, NISAR will be placed in a <\/span><b>sun-synchronous polar orbit<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at an altitude of 747 km.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It features a massive <\/span><b>12-metre mesh radar antenna<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and a <\/span><b>9-metre boom<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to support deployment and scanning.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To overcome size constraints in space, the SAR system mimics a large antenna by collecting radar pulses over time and combining them through complex processing, hence the term \u201csynthetic aperture.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Its advanced <\/span><b>SweepSAR mode<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> allows electronic steering of radar beams, providing consistent swath coverage without compromising resolution.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Data Access and Ground Infrastructure<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NISAR\u2019s open-data policy ensures that data is freely available to all users, typically <\/span><b>within a few hours<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of acquisition.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>NASA\u2019s Near Earth Network<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (in Alaska, Norway, and Chile) will handle most global data downlinks (up to 3 TB\/day).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>ISRO\u2019s Ground Stations<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Shadnagar and Antarctica will manage India\u2019s data needs.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>India\u2019s <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/remote-sensing\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>National Remote Sensing Centre<\/b><\/a><b> (NRSC)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> will process and distribute NISAR products for domestic use.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>India-U.S. Contributions<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The mission exemplifies balanced international collaboration:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>ISRO<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> contributed the spacecraft bus, the entire S-band radar system, Ka-band telemetry systems, and launch support via GSLV Mk-II.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>NASA<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> provided the L-band radar, radar structure, antenna, onboard avionics, and high-capacity data systems.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The satellite was integrated and tested in Bengaluru, symbolising \u201cMade-in-India\u201d ownership of a global science instrument.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source :<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/science\/what-makes-the-nasa-isro-nisar-satellite-so-special-explained\/article69845156.ece#:~:text=NISAR%20is%20the%20first%20major,night%2C%20in%20all%20weather%20conditions.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TH<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NISAR Satellite, launching July 30, will transform Earth observation with dual-band radar, aiding disaster, ecosystem, agriculture &#038; climate monitoring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":57082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[60,1835,22,59],"class_list":{"0":"post-56960","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"tag-mains-articles","9":"tag-nisar-satellite","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}