ISRO successfully launches NISAR satellite to track climate threats from space

ISRO has successfully launched the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. With this, India and the US have marked their maiden space collaboration. ISRO's GSLV F-16 injected the NISAR satellite into the intended Sun Synchronous Polar Orbit (SSPO), after a flight of about 19 minutes and around 745 km.

GSLV "successfully injected NISAR in designated orbit," ISRO said. Wednesday's accomplishment follows the unsuccessful PSLV-C61/EOS-09 Mission on May 18, where a faulty PSLV of ISRO failed to deliver the Earth observation satellite in the desired orbit. After successfully launching similar satellites--Resourcesat and RISAT series which were operationally focused on India, ISRO through the NISAR mission is embarking on a journey to study planet Earth.

At the end of the 27.30 hour countdown, the 51.7 metre tall launch vehicle carrying the 2,393 kg satellite majestically lifted-off from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, here, situated about 135 km east of Chennai at a prefixed time of 5.40 pm on Wednesday. Post the separation from the rocket, the scientists would embark on commissioning the satellite which would take "several days" to position it and meet the mission objectives.

NISAR objectives

According to ISRO, the 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 scientific communities. The mission would help in measuring the woody biomass, track changes in the extent of active crops, understand the changes in wetlands extent among others.

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Mission life of NISAR is 5 years

NASA said the data from the NISAR mission would provide critical insights to help governments and decision-makers plan for natural and human-caused hazards. NISAR can help with hazard-monitoring efforts and potentially give decision-makers more time to prepare for a possible disaster.

The RADAR satellite would provide a 3D view of the Earth's land and ice and through its ability to see through clouds and light rain, day and night, the satellite would enable data users to continuously monitor earthquake and landslide prone areas and determine how quickly glaciers and ice sheets are changing.

The data collected from the satellite would also offer an 'unprecedented coverage of Antarctica, information that would help with studying how the continent's ice sheet changes over time. Significantly, NISAR is the most advanced radar system ever launched by NASA or ISRO and it would generate more data on a daily basis than any previous Earth satellites launched by them.

The NISAR mission would help the two space agencies to monitor ecosystems around the world, and the L band penetrates deep into forest canopies, providing insights into forest structure, while the S-band radar monitors crops. The NISAR data would help researchers assess how forests, wetlands, and agricultural areas change over time.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from PTI)