NISAR Mission
7/30/2025
NISAR's L-band synthetic aperture radar acquired an image spanning New Orleans, Baton Rouge, the Mississippi River between them, nearby communities, and surrounding wetlands, farmlands, and forests on November 29, 2025.
Other parts of New Orleans appear magenta in the NISAR L-band color composite where street grids run parallel to the satellite track, producing bright reflections from building walls.
The U.S.-Indian NISAR satellite scheduled for launch in 2022 will include SAR sensors that can support avalanche detection.
NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) is a joint collaboration between NASA and ISRO to deploy a dual-frequency L-band and S-band synthetic aperture radar for Earth observation.
The surface deformation and change observable will build on the NISAR synthetic aperture radar mission that is under development by NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Before the 2021-08-11 failure, NISAR was scheduled to launch in early 2023.
NISAR features a 12-meter-long, drum-shaped, wire-mesh reflector radar antenna that extends from a 30-foot boom.
NISAR is a Low Earth Orbit observatory jointly developed by NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation.
India and the United States will launch the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) microwave remote sensing satellite for Earth observation in the first quarter of next year.
NISAR uses a combined L-band radar with a 25-centimeter wavelength and an S-band radar with a 10-centimeter wavelength.
NISAR is scheduled to launch later in 2024.
The NISAR mission was scheduled for launch earlier 2024 on an Indian GSLV rocket but was postponed to modify its large deployable antenna to protect it from higher-than-expected temperatures when stowed.
The Satish Dhawan Space Centre launch pad designated for NISAR must first support a GSLV launch of the navigation satellite NVS-02.
The L-band and S-band radars on NISAR will be capable of advanced radar imaging to support Earth science needs including measuring glacier flow rates and volcanic activity.
After the NVS-02 launch, refurbishing the Satish Dhawan launch pad is expected to take six to eight weeks before NISAR can launch.
NISAR launch was delayed from 2024 due to a radar antenna issue.
The NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) Earth observation satellite was expected to launch within a few months of the article’s publication.
It will take around 90 days for NISAR to become fully operational after launch.
NISAR is the first free-flying Earth observation satellite to utilize dual-frequency SAR technology.
With the NISAR launch, a GSLV Mk II vehicle placed a 2,392-kilogram satellite into a Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 747 kilometers for the first time.