India and the United States are getting ready to launch the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) spacecraft. This higher resolution radar imaging satellite is a joint project between ISRO and NASA that will offer the best coverage and resolution of the surface of the earth and that too in radar mode. Launching soon on an Indian GSLV rocket, the NISAR is another great international Earth observation collaboration.

Highlights:

• NISAR integrates dual-frequency L-band (NASA) and S-band (ISRO) radars.
• It will map the entire Earth's land and ice surfaces every 12 days.
• The mission will monitor ecosystems, ice sheets, and natural hazards.
• NISAR data will be freely accessible globally.
• This is the most substantial collaborative space mission between India and the US.

The new radar system made by NISAR is a step forward to a day-and-night imaging system that will be able to perform in all weather conditions. The coupled L-band and S-band radars pierce through cloud cover and vegetation producing very consistent data of high resolution of surface deformations. Such technological success enables systematic observation of the earth globally needed to trace minute changes that occur in the environment.

The information by the satellite will play a critical regime in comprehension of major environmental processes. NISAR will map the losses of ice, monitor icon changes that affect the agricultural sector, and deforestation as well as high geological hazards such as earthquakes and landslides. These high geographical resolution earth observations are useful in better climate modeling, micro-management of resources and mitigation of disasters across the globe.

The mission can be taken as a very successful international scientific collaboration. The engineers of NASA and ISRO have jointly developed this elaborate platform in a couple of years. NISAR enhances Indo-US space partnership and The global space observation of the earth. It has an open data policy that makes the scientific usefulness of the mission available to everyone around the world.