Nisar sends first stunning images of India from space, begins Science operations
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Nisar sends first stunning images of India from space, science begins
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Nisar sends first stunning images of India from space, science operations begin
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Initial analyses highlight Nisar’s power to map dynamic landscapes like river deltas, even through clouds or at night
Bengaluru. India-US NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (Nisar) satellite has beamed back its first high-resolution images of the Indian landmass, marking the official start of its science phase exactly 100 days after launch.
Released publicly by ISRO, the inaugural S-Band SAR image captures the lush Godavari River Delta in Andhra Pradesh, vividly showing the mangroves, agricultural fields, arecanut plantations, and aquaculture ponds with remarkable precision.
Launched aboard ISRO’s GSLV-F16 on July 30, 2025, from Sriharikota, the $1.5 billion dual-frequency radar satellite overcame a complex deployment. Its massive 12-meter diameter antenna reflector, NASA’s largest ever for Earth orbit, mounted on a 9-meter boom, unfurled successfully over five days from August 9 to 15.
The intricate process involved deploying wrist, shoulder, elbow, and root joints, managed jointly by ISRO’S ISTRAC in Bengaluru and NASA’s JPL, confirming optimal performance for both S-Band (ISRO) and L-Band (NASA) radars.
Since its first data grab on August 19, Nisar’s S-Band has imaged India and global calibration sites in diverse modes. Corner reflectors near Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and Amazon rainforest data fine-tuned pointing accuracy, yielding top-quality scans ideal for agriculture, forestry, geosciences, hydrology, Himalayan ice monitoring, and ocean studies.
Initial analyses highlight its power to map dynamic landscapes like river deltas, even through clouds or at night.
Orbiting at 747 km in a sun-synchronous polar path, Nisar scans nearly all land and ice surfaces every 12 days, detecting centimeter-scale changes for disaster alerts, ecosystem tracking, and climate insights.
This milestone cements the Indo-US partnership, positioning Nisar as a game-changer for global Earth observation amid rising needs for precise environmental data.
