NISAR: NASA, ISRO collaboration to pool resources for developing Earth-Observing satellite in 2021
New Delhi : US Space agency NASA and Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO) will be working together to develop costliest Earth imaging satellite named NISAR. The satellite will be used to give an edge on monitoring Earth with an all new perspective. NASA is a pro in space operations and ISRO had been making landmark records in recent times.NISAR is expected to cost around USD 1.5 billion, the amount will be born by both the United States and India, making it costliest ever Earth Imaging Satellite.
NISAR is the first big collaboration between NASA and ISRO, certainly on RADAR but just in general as well. This is two frequency RADAR, it is an L-band 24 centimetre RADAR and S-band 13 centimetre. S-band is being built by ISRO and L-band by NASA.
It is a major collaboration both in terms of the technical building of the satellite as well as working together across the Pacific between India and US," said Paul A Rosen, a scientist working on the NISAR satellite project, according to a report.
The launch of NISAR satellite is expected in 2021 from India aboard the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), said the report.
Rosen also said, "We are going to be making snapshots of the Earth every week using these two radars that give us a time lapse image of the motion of the tectonic plates, of the ice sheets, of the changes in vegetation over land in agriculture and forests.”
“So what we are doing is looking at time variability of the Earth over the life of the mission to understand how disasters evolve, how earthquakes occur, how volcanoes occur, how the ice sheets are changing and affecting sea level rise, and how forest fires and changes in the forest cover affect the atmosphere. It is very relevant to what society cares about which is changes in our climate, changes in our environment and how it affects society.”
