Isro-nasa mission: Information in detail of accurate forecast of disasters like monitoring, earthquake and landslides of the Earth’s surface, earthquake and environmental changes will soon be possible through Indo-US joint space mission ‘Nisar’ (NISAR).

This joint mission of NASA and ISRO will be launched through GSLV rocket from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh by the end of July 2025. Its total cost is around $ 1.5 billion (about Rs 12,500 crore), making it the most expensive meaning imaging satellite in the world.

How will Nisar work?
Its dual -frequency radar technology that makes Nisar satellite special. It has two different radars-

• The first S-band radar has been created by the Space Application Center (SAC) in Ahmedabad, ISRO.
• The second L-band radar, which has been prepared by NASA’s California-based Jet Promiples Lab (JPL).

Both radar will keep an eye on events such as subtle changes on the surface of the Earth, polar ice, glaciers’ activity, volcanoes, landslides and earthquakes. This technique is based on “Synthetic Aperture Radar”.

ISRO-NASA partnership
The foundation of this unprecedented mission was laid in 2012 by negotiation between ISRO and NASA. In 2014, there was an official agreement between the two agencies, under which one radar was decided to be prepared in India and the other in America. According to Dr. Nilesh Desai, director of SAC Center, Ahmedabad, it is a symbol of India’s technological progress, in which our first active radar was launched in 2012 and worked successfully for four and a half years.

NASA, influenced by India’s SAR technology, proposed to develop a new and more modern satellite. NASA had “Sweep SAR Technology” at that time, which gives better resolution and coverage than normal SAR.

Future natural disasters are possible
Nisar satellite will allow earthquakes, landslides, melting of glaciers, maritime changes and other environmental activities. This satellite will imaging the same place of the Earth every 12 days, so that scientists will be able to recognize even micro-level changes. This will help not only India and America but also the whole world to predict climate change and natural disasters.

Within 1 to 3 months of launch, this satellite will start giving data, which will prove useful in the policy, disaster management and environmental protection.