The NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) mission has entered a critical 90-day commissioning phase following its successful launch on July 30, 2025, aboard a GSLV-F16 rocket from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

This commissioning period involves rigorous satellite system checks, calibrations, and orbital adjustments to prepare the observatory for its full-scale Earth observation mission.

Initially inserted into orbit at an altitude of 737 km, the satellite must raise its altitude to 747 km, a process estimated to take about 45-50 days. After this orbital adjustment, the mission's dual-band radars—L-band provided by NASA and S-band by ISRO—will be activated to begin data collection.

NISAR will image the Earth's land and ice surfaces continuously, with a resolution of 5 meters by 5 meters and revisit every 12 days, producing more data than any previous NASA mission, estimated at around 80 terabytes daily.

The satellite carries two radars operating simultaneously at different frequencies, a pioneering approach allowing scientists to collect diverse and complementary data sets beneficial for a wide range of scientific and societal applications, including agricultural monitoring and natural hazard analysis.

The mission represents a significant collaborative achievement, combining ISRO's societal application perspective and NASA's deep scientific research expertise across time zones and cultures, strengthening international partnerships in space technology and Earth science.

Commissioning includes deploying a 12-meter radar reflector attached to a 9-meter boom, instrument activation, and performance verification. Once complete, NISAR enters its science operations phase, scanning nearly all land and ice-covered surfaces on Earth about twice every 12 days, capable of detecting vertical surface movements as small as 1 centimeter. The mission is expected to operate for at least three years, delivering unprecedented Earth observation data to the global community.

The 90-day commissioning ensures the satellite and its complex payloads are fully operational and calibrated to provide high-resolution, frequent, and extensive radar imaging data critical to advancing understanding of Earth's dynamic processes. This mission exemplifies the synergy of NASA and ISRO's combined technological capabilities and scientific goals.

Agencies