Washington, July 22 (IANS). India and America, a Joint Earth-Observation Satellite (NISAR), have now started making public the data collected from both their radar instruments. This will help scientists to see and understand the changes happening on Earth in a better way than before. This data also shows an area of Antarctica whose shape looks like a hummingbird.
Data from the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite was made available to the general public and scientists from July 20. NASA said that US and Indian teams will now continuously release the processed data received from its L-band and S-band radar.
With the help of this data, scientists will be able to monitor the movement of land and ice, monitor forests and marshy areas and better understand the situation after natural disasters like earthquakes and landslides.
This data has been released at a time when the first anniversary of the launch of ‘NISAR’ is about to come. This satellite was launched on 30 July 2025 from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre. Since then, scientists have been working to properly calibrate its machines, improve data processing, and monitor almost all of Earth’s land and ice-covered areas twice every 12 days.
On Tuesday, NASA also released an initial photo. In this, a mountain named Nunatak Jeterjaavshijja of East Antarctica is visible, around which the ice is flowing in the north-east direction towards the sea. Looking at the shape of the broken ice in this area, it appears as if a hummingbird is flying.
When the glacier passes around this mountain, there is pressure on the ice due to the shape of the ground. This creates deep cracks in the ice. In radar images, these cracks appear as sharp green lines, while the smooth ice appears magenta.
“First of all, it’s a beautiful image,” said Seongsoo Jeong, a signal analysis engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “It shows a lot of fine detail that helps us understand how the glacier is moving. Additionally, radar can see deep into the ice and snow layers, so ‘NISAR’ shows us features of Antarctica’s ice that normal cameras can’t see.”
He said that with the help of ‘NISAR’ we are able to see things hidden beneath the surface. This photo was created from data collected from L-band radar in August 2025. At that time teams from America and India were testing the satellite’s system.
The different colors seen in the image represent how the microwave signal bounced back after hitting the ice. Where the surface was smoother, signals returning appeared magenta. At the same time, where the signals were scattered under the ice or from rough places like cracks, those areas appeared in green color. The places where both types of signals were found together appeared in white colour.
ISRO’s Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Center has started releasing S-band data through ‘Bhunidhi’ portal. At the same time, the calibrated L-band data collected by America since June 17 is being made available continuously. Earlier some sample data were released in January and thousands of pre-calibrated data files in February.
The mission produces several dozen terabytes of scientific data every day. The satellite scans areas from near the South Pole to 77.5 degrees latitude in the Northern Hemisphere. The 12 meter wide drum-shaped radar reflector installed in it is the largest radar antenna reflector sent into space by NASA so far.
‘NISAR’ is the first satellite mission developed by NASA and ISRO. This is part of the space cooperation going on between India and America for many years. Earlier, NASA equipment was also used in India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission.
The biggest feature of synthetic aperture radar is that it can gather clear information even amidst clouds and in the dark of night. Normal cameras can’t do this. For this reason, it is used extensively to detect gradual changes in the ground as well as damage caused after earthquakes, landslides, floods and other natural disasters.
–IANS
AY/DKP
