NASA-ISRO's NISAR satellite sends first images of India from space
28 Nov 2025

The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite has sent its first high-resolution images of India, marking the beginning of its scientific phase.

The image, released by ISRO, shows the Godavari River Delta in Andhra Pradesh in stunning detail.

It captures the mangroves, agricultural fields, arecanut plantations, and aquaculture ponds with remarkable precision.

NISAR's complex deployment and operational success
Deployment details

Launched on July 30, 2025, from Sriharikota aboard ISRO's GSLV-F16 rocket, the $1.5 billion dual-frequency radar satellite went through a complicated deployment process.

Its huge 12-meter diameter antenna reflector—NASA's biggest for Earth orbit—was mounted on a nine-meter boom and deployed over five days between August 9 and August 15.

The operation involved deploying wrist, shoulder, elbow and root joints under the joint supervision of ISRO's ISTRAC in Bengaluru and NASA's JPL.

NISAR's imaging capabilities and initial analyzes
Imaging prowess

Since its first data acquisition on August 19, NISAR's S-Band has captured images of India and global calibration sites in various modes.

The satellite's pointing accuracy was fine-tuned using corner reflectors near Ahmedabad, Gujarat and Amazon rainforest data.

These adjustments have resulted in top-quality scans suitable for agriculture, forestry, geosciences, hydrology, Himalayan ice monitoring and ocean studies.

Early analyzes show its ability to map dynamic landscapes like river deltas even through clouds or at night.

NISAR's orbital path and scanning capabilities
Orbital details

Orbiting at an altitude of 747km in a sun-synchronous polar path, NISAR scans nearly all land and ice surfaces every 12 days.

It can detect centimeter-scale changes for disaster alerts, ecosystem tracking and climate insights.

This milestone cements the Indo-US partnership, positioning NISAR as a game-changer for global Earth observation amid rising needs for precise environmental data.