“NISAR” is a joint collaboration for a dual-frequency L and S-band SAR for earth observation.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has accomplished improvement of a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) able to producing extraordinarily high-resolution photographs for a joint earth observation satellite mission with the U.S. area company National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) is a joint collaboration for a dual-frequency L and S-band SAR for earth observation.
“NISAR will be the first satellite mission to use two different radar frequencies (L-band and S-band) to measure changes in our planet’s surface less than a centimetre across”, in response to NASA.
NASA and Bengaluru-headquartered ISRO signed a partnership on September 30, 2014, to collaborate on and launch NISAR.
The mission is focused to launch in early 2022 from ISRO’s Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh’s Nellore district, about 100km north of Chennai.
NASA is offering the mission’s L-band SAR, a high-rate communication subsystem for science information, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder and payload information subsystem.
ISRO is offering the spacecraft bus, the S-band radar, the launch car and related launch companies for the mission, whose objective is to make world measurements of the causes and penalties of land floor adjustments utilizing superior radar imaging.
The S-band SAR payload of NISAR satellite mission was flagged off by the Secretary within the Department of Space and ISRO Chairman Okay Sivan on March 4 by means of digital mode.
The payload has been shipped from ISRO’s Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre (SAC) to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at Pasadena within the U.S. for integration with the latter’s L-band SAR payload, an ISRO assertion mentioned.
“NISAR would provide a means of disentangling highly spatial and temporally complex processes ranging from ecosystem disturbances to ice sheet collapses and natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides”, ISRO mentioned.
NASA added that the mission will measure Earth’s altering ecosystems, dynamic surfaces and ice plenty, offering details about biomass, pure hazards, sea degree rise and groundwater, and can help a bunch of different functions.
“NISAR will observe Earth’s land and ice-covered surfaces globally with 12-day regularity on ascending and descending passes, sampling Earth on average every six days for a baseline three-year mission”, NASA mentioned on the mission’s web site.
“This allows the mission to observe a wide range of Earth processes, from the flow rates of glaciers and ice sheets to the dynamics of earthquakes and volcanoes”.
NISAR makes use of a complicated information-processing approach often known as SAR to provide extraordinarily high-resolution photographs. Radar penetrates clouds and darkness, enabling NISAR to gather information day and evening in any climate.
“The instrument’s imaging swath the width of the strip of data collected along the length of the orbit track is greater than 150 miles (240km), which allows it to image the entire Earth in 12 days,” it was acknowledged.
“Over the course of multiple orbits, the radar images will allow users to track changes in croplands and hazard sites, as well as to monitor ongoing crises such as volcanic eruptions. The images will be detailed enough to show local changes and broad enough to measure regional trends.”
“As the mission continues for years, the data will allow for better understanding of the causes and consequences of land surface changes, increasing our ability to manage resources and prepare for and cope with global change,” in response to NASA.
“NASA requires a minimum of three years of global science operations with the L-band radar, and ISRO requires five years of operations with the S-band radar over specified target areas in India and the Southern Ocean”, it mentioned.
