Nisar

The Indian Space Organisation (ISRO) and Nasa are planning the joint launch of Earth-observing Nasa-Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar (Nisar) satellite by 2021.

Currently under development by ISRO and Nasa, the Nisar satellite that will observe climate change and anomalies in Earth’s crust.

The satellite is also designed to monitor and take measurements of some of the Earth’s most complex processes, such as ecosystem disturbances, ice-sheet collapse, and natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides.

Nasa administrator Charles Frank Bolden was quoted by PTI as saying: "The US is providing L-Band.

"It will help us look at crustal deformation. We are looking for hints at earthquake detection.

"We cannot predict earthquake but we can advise people where it has occurred. We are hoping to launch it by 2020-21."

"It will help us look at crustal deformation. We are looking for hints at earthquake detection."

ISRO is hoping to bring the launch of Nisar forward to will help the country in gathering seismic activity information, as well as data for monitoring agricultural activities.

ISRO chairman AS Kiran Kumar said: "The activity involves building a payload with L and S-bands synthetic aperture radar. It’s a new technology instrument. While Nasa provides the L-Band component of the electronics plus the antenna, which is a huge one.

"ISRO will provide the S-Band and the payload will be integrated at Nasa and then the payload comes back at Bangalore. It gets integrated on the satellite, which is being built and will be launched by ISRO.

"So, currently the activities are going on in full swing. Both the governments have cleared the basic mission. We are looking at a possible launch with 2021. We are trying to advance the launch and we are working towards it. As far as we are concerned the usage of this got many significant usage for our programme."

Eleven space agencies across the world have agreed to launch a constellation of satellites, as a coordinated space observatory to monitor climate change, reports NDTV.


Image: Artist concept of the Nisar satellite in orbit. Photo: courtesy of Nasa.