NASA and other reporting say public access to data from the US–India NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite begins July 20. The satellite carries two radar instruments—operating in L-band and S-band—which can observe Earth’s land and ice surfaces. Teams in the United States and India process and release files from these two radar systems on an ongoing basis, enabling researchers and other users to explore geophysical and environmental changes.
Both sources describe the satellite’s early results, including an observation dubbed a “hummingbird” feature in Antarctica. The data are intended to support a broad range of applications, such as tracking how land and ice masses move, monitoring changes in ecosystems including forests and wetlands, and improving responses to natural hazards like landslides and earthquakes. By making processed radar products available to the public, the project supports independent analysis and collaboration across disciplines while the mission continues to collect additional observations.
