NISAR, a guardian for Earth, NASA and India create an unprecedented space mission

MIAMI—This unprecedented mission will scan our entire planet every 12 days, providing data to help anticipate natural disasters, according to NASA experts. The NISAR satellite, scheduled for launch from India, will allow humans to observe things unseen by humans.

According to a statement released by the US Space Agency on July 21, this planet-sighting satellite, the first to feature L- and S-band radars, is expected to take off aboard an ISRO Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle rocket from ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, located on the southeastern coast of India.

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“ NISAR will scan nearly all of Earth’s land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days. The mission will measure changes in the planet’s terrestrial ecosystems, the growth and shrinkage of its ice sheets, glaciers, and sea ice, and the tectonic deformation of its crust ,” NASA explains, going on to detail that “ the data will be accessible to all users from a variety of disciplines, with potential applicability in disaster response, infrastructure monitoring, and agricultural decision support .”

“ The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), the first joint satellite of ISRO and NASA, will be launched by ISRO’s GSLV-F16 on July 30, 2025, at 5:40 PM IST from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC SHAR) in Sriharikota. GSLV-F16 will place the NISAR satellite in a 743 km sun-synchronous orbit at an inclination of 98.40 °,” the Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO ) said in a statement.

NISAR, THE SPACE MISSION

This new satellite is composed of an enormous antenna measuring twelve meters in diameter, roughly the size of a school bus. This space mission will map our planet down to the millimeter, revealing changes in the Earth's surface, which could provide information about potential natural disasters.

ISRO explains that NISAR has the ability to detect small changes in the Earth's surface, such as "ground deformation," as well as "the movement of ice sheets" and "vegetation dynamics."

It will also be able to perform “ sea ice classification, ship detection, coastal monitoring, storm characterization, soil moisture changes, mapping and monitoring of surface water resources, and disaster response ,” according to the Indian Space Research Organization.

Among other activities that NISAR will carry out is monitoring glaciers, as well as ecosystem changes, including soil moisture.

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ISRO describes NISAR, which weighs 2,392 kg, “ as a unique Earth observation satellite and the first to observe the Earth with dual-frequency (NASA L-band and ISRO S-band) Synthetic Aperture Radar, both using NASA’s 12 m deployable mesh reflector antenna, integrated on ISRO’s modified I3K satellite bus ”; JPL-Caltech continues, this new satellite “ will observe the Earth with a 242 km swath and high spatial resolution, using SweepSAR technology for the first time .”

“ NISAR is like a Swiss Army knife ,” said NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist Erika Podest in an interview with EFE News Agency.

Podest points out that no other satellite in orbit has the capability of NISAR to detect these slight movements on the Earth's surface caused by plate tectonics.

This will be possible, the expert continues, thanks to its synthetic aperture radar system that maps the planet in two different frequencies (L band and S band), making it immune to clouds and adverse weather conditions that often hinder the work of other satellites.

Thus, Podest explains that this technique, combined with its enormous antenna, will allow NISAR to capture very high-resolution images, which will also be accessible " to any agency worldwide that might find them useful ."

This will enable countries located in areas where seismic activity is common, making them vulnerable to earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, to observe whether recent changes have occurred in the Earth's crust and thus issue alerts. Meanwhile, nations with water problems will have the ability to track the evolution of their water supplies; and those located by the sea will have the opportunity to better understand how their coastlines are evolving and thus be able to prepare for storms or floods.

“ We won't necessarily be able to predict an earthquake, but we can see where there is the most tectonic activity, and that area is potentially at higher risk for an earthquake ,” Podest explained.

So far, more than 180 organizations have expressed interest to NASA in accessing the database that NISAR will provide, said NASA Earth Science Director Karen St. Germain.

Finally, NASA said the first images taken by this new satellite are expected to be available 65 days after launch, and the "scientific phase" will begin on the 90th day, with all instruments ready.

With information from the EFE News Agency, NASA and ISRO.