Published: 30 July’ 2025. The English Chronicle Desk
In a pioneering step toward enhanced global environmental monitoring, India and the United States are preparing to launch a satellite that promises unprecedented precision in tracking changes across Earth’s land, seas, and ice sheets. The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission, a joint effort between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is slated for launch from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Wednesday at 17:40 IST (12:10 GMT).
Weighing 2,392 kilograms, NISAR is hailed as the most advanced radar satellite ever developed by NASA, equipped with a unique capability to observe the planet using two different radar frequencies simultaneously — NASA’s L-band and ISRO’s S-band. This first-of-its-kind dual-frequency system will orbit the Earth in a sun-synchronous polar path, ensuring consistent observations of the same regions every 12 days.
Former NASA scientist Mila Mitra emphasized that NISAR’s repeated scans will enable detection of minute changes as small as a few centimeters in terrain, coastal areas, and ice sheets. The satellite’s high-resolution data will be instrumental not only for the space agencies involved but also for global efforts in disaster preparedness and climate change monitoring.
The Earth’s surface is in a state of constant flux, influenced by both natural phenomena and human activity. NASA’s Earth Sciences Director, Karen St Germain, who is currently in India for the launch, highlighted the satellite’s capacity to detect early warning signs of natural hazards including earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, and forest fires. Moreover, NISAR will monitor land subsidence and swelling, glacier melt in polar regions such as Greenland and Antarctica, and human-induced alterations like agricultural expansion and infrastructure development.
St Germain remarked, “With NISAR, we will gain the ability to observe the precursors to various natural disasters, enabling timely interventions and potentially saving lives. It will also deepen our understanding of how human activity reshapes our planet.”
The mission’s launch follows closely after the Axiom-4 mission, which marked the historic journey of an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station for the first time, underscoring India’s growing prominence in space exploration.
As the satellite embarks on its mission to provide vital data on Earth’s evolving landscape, the collaborative venture between NASA and ISRO stands as a testament to the power of international partnership in addressing pressing global challenges like climate change and disaster resilience.
