NISAR’s L-band synthetic aperture radar is designed to track subtle ground and glacier motion and crop growth while passing over Earth several times per month.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed by Caltech, leads the U.S. component of NISAR.
NISAR monitors Earth’s land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days.
NISAR mapped ground movement beneath Mexico City using synthetic aperture radar from orbit.
NISAR’s L-band radar operates day and night and in all weather conditions.
NISAR launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on India’s southeastern coast.
NISAR is the first satellite to carry two SAR instruments at different wavelengths.
NISAR carries a 12-meter-wide drum-shaped reflector that is the largest radar antenna reflector NASA has ever sent into space.
ISRO provided NISAR’s launch vehicle platform and S-band SAR.
NISAR is a joint mission developed by NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation.
NISAR can track changes on Earth’s surface in near real time without being hindered by clouds or vegetation.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory provided NISAR’s L-band SAR and antenna reflector.
NISAR's L-band radar uses microwaves with a wavelength of about 9 inches (24 centimeters).
NISAR data are expected to support disaster response, infrastructure inspection, and other applications requiring frequent, cloud-penetrating, day-or-night imaging.
NISAR L-band imagery resolves agricultural parcels on both sides of the Mississippi River, with darker tones suggesting fallow fields and bright magenta pixels indicating areas with tall crops.
The Alaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center in Fairbanks, Alaska, will host and distribute NISAR L-band radar data products worldwide as part of NASA's network of synthetic aperture radar archives.
Portions of New Orleans appear green in the NISAR L-band color composite where radar echoes scatter from buildings oriented at multiple angles relative to the satellite flight path.
By combining L-band and S-band sensitivity to different target sizes and structures, NISAR enables better distinction between surface roughness, vegetation structure, and ground deformation.
Operating in dual-frequency mode, NISAR will revisit and map Earth's land and ice areas twice every 12 days, producing dense time series of radar observations.
Optical images of the New Orleans–Baton Rouge region from other satellites on November 29, 2025 showed the area largely hidden under cloud layers while NISAR's radar imaged it.