India awaits NISAR launch from Sriharikota today

Kicking off one of the most awaited space missions, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) today will launch NISAR which is jointly developed by ISRO and NASA for microwave imaging globally.

The lift off will be from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh at 5:40 pm. GSLV-F16 (launch system) will inject the NISAR satellite into a 743 km Sun-synchronous orbit.

NISAR, weighing 2392 kg, is a unique earth observation satellite and the first satellite to observe the earth with a dual frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (NASA’s L-band and ISRO’s S-band).

The satellite will image the global land and ice-covered surfaces, including islands, sea-ice and selected oceans every 12 days.

NISAR mission’s primary objectives are to study land & ice deformation, land ecosystems, and oceanic regions in areas of common interest to the US and Indian science communities.

Objectives of NISAR mission

• Measure the woody biomass and its changes
• Track changes in the extent of active crops
• Understand the changes in wetlands’ extent
• Map Greenland’s & Antarctica’s ice sheets, dynamics of sea ice and mountain glaciers
• Characterize land surface deformation related to seismicity, volcanism, landslides, and subsidence & uplift associated with changes in subsurface aquifers, hydrocarbon reservoirs, etc.

“ISRO takes care of the satellite commanding and operations, NASA will provide the orbit maneuver plan and RADAR operations plan. NISAR mission will be aided with ground station support of both ISRO and NASA for downloading of the acquired images, which after the necessary processing will be disseminated to the user community,” ISRO said.

NISAR can detect even small changes in the Earth’s surface such as ground deformation, ice sheet movement and vegetation dynamics. Further applications include sea ice classification, ship detection, shoreline monitoring, storm characterization, changes in soil moisture, mapping & monitoring of surface water resources and disaster response.

The idea for NISAR originated with the 2007 National Academy of Sciences decadal survey, which identified the need for greater insight into ecosystems, solid Earth, and cryosphere sciences. In subsequent years, ISRO and NASA began discussing the potential of a joint, dual-frequency radar mission to address each agency’s Earth science priorities, and in 2014 they signed an agreement to collaborate on NISAR.