India and the US will soon launch the joint microwave remote sensing satellite for Earth observation, named NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR). The spacecraft will orbit the Earth in a sun-synchronous orbit of 747 Km with an inclination of 98.4 degree for a 12-day repeat cycle.
The launching of the NISAR satellite will get a significant boost as NASA’s C-130 Hercules aircraft is bringing a crucial component from USA to Bengaluru. According to an official statement the C-130 aircraft departed from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on October 15, to embark on the multi-leg, multi-day journey. "The flight path will take the aircraft coast to coast within the United States, across the Pacific Ocean with planned island stops, and finally to its destination in India tosafely deliver NISAR’s radar antennae reflector, one of NASA’s contributions to the mission, for integration on the spacecraft," " NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility said in a statement.
The cargo transport mission will encompass approximately 24,500 nautical miles and nearly 80 hours of flight time for the C-130 and crew. The flight plan includes strategic stops and rest days to service the aircraft and reduce crew fatigue from long-haul segments of the flight and multiple time zone changes.
The first stop for the C-130 was March Air Reserve Base located in Riverside County, California, to retrieve the radar antennae reflector from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Additional stops during the mission include Hickman Air Force Base, Hawaii; Andersen Air Force Base, Guam; Clark Air Base, Philippines; and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Airport in Bengaluru, India.
Facts about NISAR satellite: A joint project of NASA-ISRO
NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) is a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) observatory being jointly developed by NASA and ISRO. NISAR will map the entire globe in 12 days and provide spatially and temporally consistent data for understanding changes in Earth’s ecosystems, ice mass, vegetation biomass, sea level rise, ground water and natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides. NISAR.
It carries L and S dual band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), which operates with Sweep SAR technique to achieve large swath with high resolution data. The SAR payloads mounted on Integrated Radar Instrument Structure (IRIS) and the spacecraft bus are together called an observatory.
Jet Propulsion Laboratories and ISRO are realizing the observatory which shall not only meet the respective national needs but also will feed the science community with data encouraging studies related to surface deformation measurements through repeat-pass InSAR technique.
NASA is responsible for providing the L-Band SAR payload system in which the ISRO supplied S-Band SAR payload and both these SAR systems will make use of a large size (about 12m diameter) common unfurlable reflector antenna . In addition, NASA will provide engineering payloads for the mission, including a Payload Data Subsystem, a High-rate Science Downlink System, GPS receivers and a Solid State Recorder.
This would be the first dual frequency radar imaging mission in L-Band & S-Band using an advanced Sweep SAR technique to provide L & S band space-borne SAR data with high repeat cycle, high resolution, and larger swath, with capability of full-polar metric and interferometric modes of operation.
It will provide a means of disentangling and clarifying spatially and temporally complex phenomena, ranging from ecosystem disturbances, to ice sheet collapse and natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and landslide This is expected to provide impetus to the fast maturing microwave remote sensing applications in geosciences
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
