The US Consulate General in Chennai announced on Wednesday that the payload for the India-US earth observation satellite NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) project has arrived in Bengaluru from the US.
The National Infrared Scanning Radiometer (NISAR) is an earth observation satellite developed in partnership by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The satellite left NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California on a C-17 jet flown by the United States Air Force.
“Bangalore, we have landed! The Earth observation satellite NISAR (@NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar), a genuine icon of #USIndia civil space partnership, was delivered to @ISRO on a @USAirforce C-17 from @NASAJPLAin California. #USIndiaTogether, “a tweet from the US Consulate General in Chennai.
The U.R. Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru will be responsible for mounting the NISAR payload on a spacecraft bus and conducting the necessary tests. In 2024, the Indian Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rocket will lift off from Sriharikota with the satellite aboard.
The radar data for NISAR will be collected using a reflector antenna with a diameter of about 40 feet (12 metres). Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) is a signal processing technique that will be used to detect changes on Earth’s land and ice surfaces on a micrometer-scale.
JPL engineers and technicians have been hard at work since the beginning of 2021 integrating and testing the two radar systems that make up NISAR: an L-band SAR supplied by JPL and an S-band SAR constructed by ISRO.
NISAR’s observations, which can pick up on changes large and small, will aid in quantifying the dynamic nature of Earth’s evolution.
Information on slow-moving variations of a land surface could help communities prepare for natural dangers such as earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic eruptions.
The rate and effects of climate change, including sea level rise, can be better understood with accurate measurements of melting sea ice and ice sheets. In addition, observing the world’s forests and farmlands will increase our understanding of carbon exchange between the atmosphere and plant ecosystems, thereby reducing the margin of error in climate projection models.
During its three-year primary mission, the satellite will conduct around-the-clock, all-weather surveys of practically the whole world every 12 days.
NASA and ISRO have teamed up for an Earth observation programme called NISAR. Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, is leading the United States’ contribution to the project and providing the L-band SAR for the mission. Besides from the radar reflector antenna and the deployable boom, NASA is also providing the high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder, and a payload data subsystem.
According to JPL, ISRO will be providing the satellite’s bus, S-band SAR, launch vehicle, and other launch services and satellite mission operations.
