About NISAR

• It is optimized for studying hazards and global environmental change
• It can help manage natural resources better and provide information to scientists to better understand the effects and pace of climate change.
• It will scan the globe every 12 days over the course of its three-year mission
• It will be imaging the Earth’s
  • land,
  • ice sheets
  • sea ice
• It will detect movements of the planet’s surface as small as 0.4 inches over areas about half the size of a tennis court.
• NASA will provide
  • one of the radars for the satellite,
  • a high-rate communication subsystem for science data,
  • GPS receivers
  • A payload data subsystem.
• ISRO will provide the
  • spacecraft bus,
  • The second type of radar (called the S-band radar),
  • The launch vehicle and associated launch services.
• NISAR will be equipped with the largest reflector antenna ever launched by NASA
• Reflector’s primary goals include
  • Tracking subtle changes in the Earth’s surface,
  • Spotting warning signs of imminent volcanic eruptions,
  • Helping to monitor groundwater supplies
  • Tracking the rate at which ice sheets are melting.