A new formidable radar satellite jointly developed by the United States and India was launched on Wednesday, designed to trace subtle changes on terrestrial and ice surfaces of the earth and help predict natural hazards and caused by humans.
Nisar nisar (NASA-ISRO SYNTHETIC OPENING RADAR), the spaceship of the size of a truck unleashed around 5:40 pm (5:10 PM PKT) from the satisfied space center on the coast of the southeast of India, riding a satellite satelling vehicle rocket isro isro.
A live transmission of the event showed excited schools brought to see the launch and equipment of the erupting mission in cheers and hugs.
Very expected by scientists, the mission has also been acclaimed by the president of the United States, Donald Trump, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a milestone in the growing cooperation between the two countries.
“Indian congratulations!” Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of Science and Technology of India, wrote in X, calling the mission as a “change of play.”
“The surface of our planet undergoes a constant and significant change,” said Karen St Germain, director of the NASA Earth Sciences Division, to journalists before the launch. “Some changes occur slowly. Some happen abruptly. Some changes are large, while others are subtle.”
When collecting small changes in the vertical movement of the land surface, as little as a centimeter, scientists can detect the precursors of natural and human disasters, from earthquakes, landslides and volcanoes to aging infrastructure such as prey and bridges.
“We will see land substance and swelling, movement, deformation and fusion of mountain glaciers and ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica, and of course, we will see forest fires,” added St Germain, calling Nisar “the most sophisticated radar we have built.”
India in particular is interested in studying its coastal areas and close to the ocean by following annual changes in the form of the sea near the river deltas and how the coasts are growing or reducing.
The data will also be used to help guide agricultural policy by mapping crop growth, plant health monitoring and soil moisture monitoring.
In the coming weeks, the spacecraft will begin a start -up phase of approximately 90 days during which it will display its 12 -meter radar antenna reflector.
Once operational, Nisar will register almost all the earth and the ice of the earth twice every 12 days from an altitude of 747 kilometers, surrounding the planet near the poles instead of around Ecuador.
Microwave frequencies
As orbit, the satellite will continually transmit microwave and receive echoes from the surface.
Because the spacecraft is moving, the return signs are distorted, but the computer processing will reassemble them to produce detailed high -resolution images.
Achieving similar results with traditional radar would require a large impractical plate of 12 miles wide.
Nisar will operate at two radar frequencies: Banda L and Banda S. The band L is ideal for higher vegetation such as trees, while the S band allows more precise readings of more short plants such as shrubs and shrubs.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the NASA and ISRO of India shared the workload, each building components on opposite sides of the planet before integrating and testing the spacecraft in the establishment of integration and satellite test of Isro in the city of Bengaluru in southern India.
NASA’s contribution came to just under $ 1.2 billion, while Isro’s costs were around $ 90 million.
India’s space program has advanced in recent years, including the placement of a probe in the orbit of Mars in 2014 and land a robot and a rover on the moon in 2023.
Shubhanshu Shukla, a test pilot of the India Air Force, recently became GAGANYAAN (“Sky Craft”) Program.
