NISAR

NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar)

Active Mission

about the mission

NISAR

The News

Covering the Major Milestones

The Science

Behind the Science

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NISAR will help us track disasters, monitor ecosystems and crops, study glaciers and ice sheets, and understand how Earth’s surface moves and changes. The data it provides will help protect lives, support the management of natural resources, and give us a deeper understanding of our changing planet than ever before.

Type

Orbiter

Launch

July 30, 2025

Partners

NASA, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)

Objective

To measure and understand changes in Earth’s land, ice, water, and vegetation

Mission Partners
NASA, ISRO
Instruments
L-band SAR (24 cm wavelength) and S-band SAR (9.4 cm wavelength)
Instrument Type
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)
Mission Phase
Commissioning phase
Data Availability
NISAR data is being archived by the Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) DAAC and is openly available to the public.

👁 Mapping Kamchatka Earthquake Displacement

NISAR Limited Data Released in February 2026

In late February 2026 NISAR released over 100,000 Level 1 to Level 3 L-band data products through the Alaska Satellite Facility DAAC.

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NISAR Science Users’ Handbook

Mission Overview

An Unprecedented View of Earth

NISAR's data can help people worldwide better manage natural resources and hazards, as well as providing information for scientists to better understand the effects and pace of Earth system change. It will also add to our understanding of our planet's hard outer layer, called its crust.

Learn More

Mission Overview

👁 NISAR

News/Mission Updates

Explore All NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) Stories

Article

2 Min Read

NISAR’s View of Mount Rainier

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Article

2 Min Read

NISAR Views Mount St. Helens

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4 Min Read

NASA-ISRO Satellite Captures Pacific Northwest Through Clouds

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4 Min Read

Landslide and Avalanche Debris Litter Hubbard Glacier

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3 Min Read

U.S.-India NISAR Satellite Images Mississippi River Delta Region

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science Behind the Mission

👁 The rocky mountains soar in the background just behind the nearby forest along the edge of the lake.

Solid Earth

Measuring constant changes in Earth's surface

👁 Landsat satellite image of ocean turbulence forming the lower case letter E.

Water

Measuring coastal processes

👁 Some floating sea ice mixed with near black ocean waters along the borders of the solid ice edge, with ocean surrounding an ice peninsula toward the screen bottom.

Cryosphere

Monitoring changes in global ice

👁 A tree covered mountain in the distance, behind two near bushy pines shows large orange flames in the center of the image. smoke billows up into the sky and to the right blue sky occupies a much smaller area over the fire on the left with some distant cumulus clouds behind

Ecosystems

Studying biomass and impacts on biodiversity

The Magic of SAR

NISAR will be the first radar of its kind in space to systematically map Earth, using two different radar frequencies (L-band and S-band) to measure changes of our planet’s surface, including movements as small as centimeter. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) refers to a technique for producing fine-resolution images from a resolution-limited radar system.

Get to Know SAR