India and the United States will launch a highly advanced Earth observation satellite, NISAR, on July 30. The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission represents a major step forward in bilateral space cooperation, arriving five decades after the SITE program, which first brought the two nations together in the space sector.
NISAR is designed to monitor the Earth with remarkable accuracy, scanning the planet every 12 days. It can detect changes of just a few centimetres in terrain, water bodies, vegetation, and ice. Each radar image pixel will represent an area roughly half the size of a tennis court, enabling continuous monitoring of environmental changes.
The satellite&rsquo;s data will be made publicly available and used for tracking natural disasters, predicting floods, studying coastal erosion, monitoring forests, assessing agricultural damage, and supporting ship tracking. It is expected to provide critical information for disaster response and long-term planning related to climate and sustainability.
This will be the first satellite co-developed by NASA and ISRO. NASA has provided the L-band radar, while ISRO built the S-band radar and will conduct the launch. The dual radar system allows NISAR to capture highly detailed images of the Earth's surface and sub-surface features regardless of cloud cover or time of day.
According to NASA-JPL scientist Paul Rosen, the satellite&rsquo;s radar technology is precise enough to detect ground shifts down to the millimetre. He said this allows researchers to observe surface changes over time with high resolution.
NISAR reflects the growing depth of the India-US space partnership. From the early days of SITE, which aimed to deliver educational broadcasts to remote Indian villages, the collaboration has now advanced to developing next-generation space tools for global environmental monitoring. With its combination of sophisticated technology and open data access, NISAR is expected to play a key role in helping the world respond to climate challenges and natural disasters more effectively.

India-US to Launch NISAR Earth Satellite July 30

NISAR will track Earth changes to aid disaster response, climate, and environment studies

India-US to Launch NISAR Earth Satellite July 30

NISAR will track Earth changes to aid disaster response, climate, and environment studies

July 29, 2025 | 17:27 IST