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Indian Express
17 hours ago
- Science
- Indian Express
India to launch NASA-ISRO NISAR satellite today: Here's how to watch live
NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, NISAR for short, is all set to launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. The satellite will be aboard India's largest rocket – the GSLV Mk II, an expendable non-reusable three-stage launch vehicle that is 52 metres or 170 feet in height. In a statement, former ISRO chairperson K Sivan said NISAR 'is a very advanced satellite that can capture even the slightest of the movements on the Earth's surface. These observations can help them in mapping changes such as volcanic hazards or landslides and prepare in advance. This is a result of a collaboration that started nearly 10 years ago.' Weighing 2.392 kg, the Earth observation will be launched aboard the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark II, or GSLV Mk II rocket for short, with liftoff scheduled for Wednesday, July 30 at 5:40 PM IST. You can watch the live launch of NISAR using the link below, or you can head over to NASA's website to tune in to the launch. The Earth observation satellite will take anywhere between eight to ten days for full deployment. Post launch, NISAR will be in a 65-day engineering phase where scientists will conduct preliminary tests and calibrations every day. Jointly developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA), the Earth observation satellite is capable of mapping the Earth during both day and night time in any weather condition. Designed to scan the entire Earth every 12 days, the satellite will have two synthetic aperture radars called SARs, which are designed to detect changes to the planet's surface down to fractions of an inch. The Earth observation satellite can help scientists monitor natural disasters like earthquakes and landslides, and also offer them an 'unprecedented coverage of Antarctica' so they can understand how ice sheets change over time. The first-ever hardware collaboration between ISRO and NASA features two radar systems which will monitor Earth's land and ice surfaces every 12 days. NISAR will also cover surfaces where no other satellite has been able to reach. The S-band radar, which was built by ISRO, will help monitor crops, while the L-band radar, which is developed by NASA, is capable of penetrating deep forest canopies. These components were integrated and installed on a modified ISRO I3K spacecraft bus earlier this year. NISAR's launch has been delayed numerous times, with the last launch date pushed back after it had trouble with the unfurlable antennae.
Indian Express
a day ago
- Science
- Indian Express
NASA-ISRO mission — NISAR — all set for launch today
IN ONE of its most anticipated missions in recent years, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar), a sophisticated and expensive earth observation satellite developed in collaboration with NASA, from Sriharikota on Wednesday. The launch will see India's GSLV rocket, for the first time, inject a satellite into a Sun Synchronous Polar Orbit, an orbit in which the satellite will scan over the same point on Earth at the same time each day. Usually, PSLV is utilised for such an orbit, but NISAR is a heavier satellite, beyond the capability of a PSLV. The GSLV launch vehicle has so far been used to put satellites only in a geosynchronous transfer orbit, a highly elliptical orbit that is used as an intermediary to easily take satellites to the high geosynchronous orbits at around 36,000 km where they move with the Earth to remain over the same location every single day. 'This has been a much-anticipated launch,' said ISRO chairperson Dr V Narayanan. The NISAR satellite is capable of mapping the Earth during the day and the night and in any weather condition. The satellite will scan the entire globe every 12 days, providing a series of very detailed images of the Earth's surface that can capture changes even as small as a centimetre. 'This is a very advanced satellite that can capture even the slightest of the movements on the Earth's surface. These observations can help them in mapping changes such as volcanic hazard or landslides and prepare in advance. This is a result of a collaboration that started nearly 10 years ago,' said former ISRO chairperson K Sivan. The mission marks the first hardware collaboration between the Indian and the US space agencies, with each providing a different radar system for the satellite. NASA's L-band radar and ISRO's S band radar are sensitive to two different sizes of features on the Earth as well as two different types of attributes such as moisture content, surface roughness and motion. The NISAR satellite is meant to capture detailed information about various systems on Earth such as the changing surface and interior of the planet like magma and volcano eruptions, the cold regions with its ice cover, glaciers, sea ice and permafrost, the terrestrial ecosystems like forest cover, rivers, crop fields as well as the water. It will provide important data to researchers across the globe for better management of natural resources, planning for natural disasters, and importantly, understanding the effects and the pace of climate change. NISAR cannot predict floods or forest fires but can observe the minutest of changes and provide risk assessment analysis. The 2,392-kg satellite will be put in a 747-km circular orbit nearly 19 minutes after launch. The mission life of the satellite is five years. GSLV's previous launch, earlier this year, had not been entirely successful. While the launch vehicle did place the NVS-02 satellite in the intended orbit, the satellite could not undertake further manoeuvres needed to reach the final orbit. A GSLV launch had also failed in 2021, owing to a pressure drop in the liquid hydrogen tank in the cryogenic stage. From the launch date, it will take eight to 10 days for the satellite's full deployment, including the complete blooming of the antenna. Post the launch of any space mission, there is a calibration and testing phase. If the launch is realised on July 30, then NISAR will remain under a 65-day engineering phase during which the preliminary tests and calibration will be performed. On day 65 after the launch, the first, full-frame science data will be taken and the science teams will check for its quality and other parameters. The actual science phase of NISAR will commence on day 70 after the launch. The scientific commissioning phase of NISAR will commence on day 90. Some of the planned applications of the NISAR satellite include: • Monitor changes in surface water and soil moisture: This data can provide actionable points to mitigate or better deal with occurrences such as flooding, landslides, crop failures, droughts and wildfires • Earthquakes: The data from the satellite can be used to map fault zones and fault systems, where an earthquake is likely to occur. Their long-term study can also help in forecasting. Following an earthquake, the data can also be used to locate the areas of damage • Permafrost: NISAR can observe the changes to the permafrost — the frozen sub-surface layer — that can inform about the communities that may be affected • Volcanic eruptions: The data from the satellite can be used to characterise and monitor volcanic processes, build models of sub-surface magma movement before, during, and after eruptions. This will facilitate eruption forecasting
Deccan Herald
5 days ago
- Science
- Deccan Herald
NISAR: Eyes wide open on Earth
The story of the world's most advanced and expensive earth observation satellite began nearly 15 years ago when the Indian Space Research Organisation turned down an offer from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to launch a radar satellite using an Indian rocket from Sriharikota spaceport. The US satellite was to use sweepSAR (sweep synthetic aperture radar) technology to provide wide area coverage and fine spatial resolution at the same time. New Delhi proposed an alternative: housing two radars in a single satellite. Both parties agreed, and an agreement was inked. The L-band radar, associated systems, and the antenna were made at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California, while the S-band radar was built at the Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad. From next week, the two synthetic aperture radars aboard NISAR will detect changes in the planet's surface down to fractions of an inch. The spacecraft will bounce microwave signals off Earth's surface and receive the return signals on a radar antenna reflector measuring 12 meters across. The satellite's ability to see through clouds and rain, day and night, will enable users to continuously monitor earthquake and landslide-prone areas and determine how quickly glaciers and ice sheets are Exploring new frontiers in space cooperation.'NISAR can detect even small changes in the Earth's surface such as ground deformation, ice sheet movement and vegetation dynamics,' ISRO says. Other applications include sea ice classification, ship detection, shoreline monitoring, storm characterisation, changes in soil moisture, mapping and monitoring of surface water resources and disaster response. 'It's a highly advanced satellite,' notes K Sivan, former ISRO chairman. Earthquakes, volcanoes, and ageing infrastructure can pose risks to lives and property. Able to see subtle changes in Earth's surface, NISAR can help with hazard-monitoring efforts and potentially give decision-makers more time to prepare for a disaster. For earthquakes, it will provide insights into which parts of a fault slowly move without producing quakes and which are locked together and could potentially slip. For the farm sector, it will help monitor the growth of crops from planting to harvest, generating crucial insights on how to time plantings and adjust irrigation schedules. The mission will have the resolution to see even small plots of farmland. The satellite's development path was a challenging one. The ISRO-NASA pact was signed in October 2014 with a target to launch the satellite by 2020. But developing the radar and antenna took more time, and the US could transfer the payload to India only in 2023-24. Unfortunately, within months, it was sent to the USA for repair. In March 2024, the radar antenna reflector of the satellite was transported back to a facility in California, where reflective tape was applied and other precautionary measures were taken to mitigate temperature increases that could have potentially affected the deployment of the reflector from its stowed configuration before beginning the science operations in space. The component returned to ISRO's clean room by October 2024, when the Indian space agency began preparation for a February launch, which didn't materialise. Ironically, a GSLV with a cryogenic engine will be used to launch the India-US satellite on July 30, even though the USA left no stone unturned for India to acquire the cryogenic technology. The mission's extraordinary capabilities come from the synthetic aperture radar. As the radar travels, its antenna continuously transmits microwave pulses and receives echoes from the surface. When the pulses hit something — a volcanic cone, for example — they scatter. The antenna receives those signals that echo back to the instrument, which measures their strength, change in frequency, how long they took to return, and if they bounced off of multiple surfaces, such as buildings. 'This mission packs in a wide range of science toward a common goal of studying our changing planet and the impacts of natural hazards,' says Deepak Putrevu, co-lead of the ISRO science team at the Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad.
