NISAR To Help India Understand Changing Mangrove Environment, NASA To Study Ice Sheets, Says JPL Director

The JPL Director also said that NASA and ISRO look forward to working together on future missions such as those to the Moon and Mars. 

NISAR is a joint mission between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and stands for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar mission. It is an Earth satellite set to be launched in January 2024. Laurie Leshin, the director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), said on November 14, 2023 that NISAR is a radar machine to look at the surface of the Earth and how it is changing, and that using this satellite, India is interested in understanding how the mangrove environment at the coasts is changing, news agency ANI reported. She explained that NASA will use NISAR to understand how ice sheets are changing, and how earthquakes and volcanoes occur. 

Leshin also said that NASA and ISRO look forward to working together on future missions such as those to the Moon and Mars. 

“We are so excited to work on NISAR. It is a radar machine to look at the surface of the earth and how it is changing. In India, they are interested in understanding how the mangrove environment at the coasts is changing. We will understand how ice sheets are changing and how earthquakes and volcanoes are happening all over the world. It has been so exciting to have our colleagues from JPL here in Bengaluru working shoulder-to-shoulder with their colleagues at ISRO. The team is working very well together. We look forward to working together on all kinds of things, perhaps future missions to the Moon and Mars,” the JPL Director was quoted as saying by ANI.

What is NISAR?

NISAR is aimed at making global measurements of the causes and consequences of land surface changes using advanced radar imaging. NASA and ISRO are providing two radars that are optimised to allow the NISAR mission to observe a wide range of surface changes.

According to NASA, NISAR will be the first radar of its kind in space to systematically map Earth, using two different radar frequencies namely L-band and S-band. 

NISAR's data will be useful because it will help people worldwide better manage natural resources and hazards. Moreover, scientists will be able to better understand the effects and pace of climate change. 

The mission will also increase our understanding of Earth's crust.

NISAR will measure the changing ecosystems of our planet, ice masses, and dynamic surfaces. The mission will also provide information about biomass, natural hazards, groundwater, and the rise in sea level. 

NISAR has a planned duration of three years.