ISRO, NASA take giant space leap with NISAR launch
Taking a giant leap in space mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) today successfully launched NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) which is jointly developed by ISRO and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) for microwave imaging globally.
ISRO’s launch system GSLV-F16 injected the NISAR satellite into the Sun-synchronous orbit, which keeps a satellite in sync with the Sun’s position, allowing it to capture images with consistent lighting.
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).
NASA said the NISAR launch would advance US-India cooperation and benefit the US in the areas of disaster response and agriculture. The satellite would 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 and ice deformation, land ecosystems, and oceanic regions in areas of common interest to the US and Indian science communities.
“The information NISAR provides will help decision-makers, communities and scientists monitor agricultural fields, refine understanding of natural hazards, such as landslides and earthquakes, and help teams prepare for and respond to disasters like hurricanes, floods and volcanic eruptions. The satellite will also provide key global observations of changes to ice sheets, glaciers, and permafrost, as well as forests and wetlands,” NASA 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 characterisation, changes in soil moisture, mapping and 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.
Credited to be the most advanced radar system ever launched as part of a NASA or ISRO mission, NISAR will generate more data on a daily basis than any previous earth satellite from either agency.
ISRO Chairperson Dr V Narayayan said: “I am extremely happy. Under the leadership and guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi this year, we are going to have a lot of missions. Before the end of this financial year nine major launches are planned. The next major launch is the LVM3-M5 mission where the LVM3 launch vehicle will launch a communication satellite CMS-02. Subsequently, PSLV-C62 is targeted for a launch followed by the first PSLV which is realised by the industrial consortium called PSLV N1.”
Later this year, a PSLV-C 63 is targeted to launch the Oceansat 3A and GSLV F 18 will launch GASAT 1A satellite and a couple of SSLV missions are also targeted.
“We are going to have one more GSLV F 17 vehicle going to place the navigation satellite nvs-03 in this financel year. Two important missions are accomplished between NASA and ISRO. Axiom 4 was a grand success, and today’s NISAR programme was a grand success. The third one is the launch of BlueBird block 2, a communication satellite of the US,” he said.
India