New Delhi: The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite launched by the GSLV-F16 flight on 30 July is on track to commence science operations
from November. After the launch the satellite successfully deployed its nine-metre-long boom along with the 12-metre-wide radar antenna reflector. The launch vehicle, along with the boom and the antenna reflector were the only single-points of failures on the mission, with all other systems being redundant or designed to degrade gracefully. The spacecraft, including the twin radar payloads have passed all the preliminary checks conducted by NASA and ISRO missions, to ensure nominal operations.
Towards the end of August, the ground teams began raising the NISAR satellite to its operational orbit of 747 kilometres using on-board propulsion. The first science-quality radar images should start coming in over the next few weeks, with regular science operations scheduled to commence about 90 days from the launch. The NISAR satellite is the first collaboration of its kind between India and USA, with the Space Applications Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad providing the S-band payload, while the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California provided the L-band payload. ISRO has provided the satellite bus and the solar panels, while NASA provided the boom and the reflector.
Monitoring the Health of the planet
NISAR is the first satellite to carry two SAR payloads. The innovative SweepSAR technology that allows for a wide area coverage without compromising on fine resolution was developed by JPL. The S-band radar is useful for small vegetation, agriculture, grassland ecosystems and measuring the moisture content of snow, while the S-band radar can penetrate forest canopies, measure soil moisture, estimate forest biomass, and precisely track the movements of land and ice surfaces. The satellite will be capable of monitoring the entire surface of the Earth every 12 days. The NISAR mission has novel capabilities which is bound to have novel applications as well.
