MidLand, Jakarta – For the first time, the American space agency (NASA) and India (ISRO) are working together to develop hardware for Earth observation missions. The two space agencies are putting the finishing touches on the NASA-ISRO synthetic aperture radar (NISAR).
After launch in 2024, NISAR will continue to scan the Earth’s surface with radar. One of its main goals is to monitor how our planet’s landscape changes over time, according to a NASA statement.
Every 12 days, NISAR will scan the entire land and ice surface twice. The satellite contains two different synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems, each observing the Earth at different wavelengths.
NASA is developing L-band SAR, while ISRO is developing S-band SAR, which scans with shorter wavelength radio waves.
“NISAR radar technology will allow us to gain a comprehensive perspective of the planet in space and time,” said Paul Rosen, NISAR project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, in a statement cited by Livescience, December 1, 2023.
“This could give us a really good look at how the Earth’s land and ice are changing,” he added.
Announcement
Specifically, NISAR will focus on Earth’s forests and wetlands. Climate scientists are particularly interested in both types of ecosystems because forests and wetlands serve as important carbon sinks, storing carbon that might otherwise float into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
But when farmers burn forests to make way for new farmland or when cities expand into wetlands, and when both types of land shrink, we reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that forests can store. Land use changes like these account for about 11% of our carbon emissions, scientists say.
“Globally, we do not adequately understand the sources and sinks of carbon in terrestrial ecosystems, especially forests,” said Anup Das, ecosystem scientist and co-lead of ISRO’s NISAR science team. “So we hope that NISAR can really help overcome this situation.”
NISAR will be launched in early 2024 from ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Center in southern India.
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