NASA Shares First Radar Image From NISAR Satellite

JAKARTA The first radar image from the NISAR satellite was finally shared by NASA. This image was published before the satellite began its full scientific operation scheduled for the end of this year.

Images of the NISAR vehicle, short for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, show the Earth's orbiting scanning rate is quite high. The reason is, the image shows very valuable details for scientists.

The satellite's satellite-band synthetic apertur radar (SAR) system captured Mount Desert Island on the coast of Maine on August 21. The L-band radar managed to detect a very small object, about five meters away from a fairly high distance.

The image clearly displays waters, forests, and hard surfaces such as vacant land and buildings. A few days later, the L-band SAR also managed to capture data partly from the North Dakota region in the northeast.

This image displays wet forests and land, as well as agricultural land in the north and south. Farming shows the difference between vacant land and land with grass or food crops, even identifying the pattern of central axis irrigation.

These images show how L-band SAR is able to identify types of land cover such as trees and human buildings. This ability is very important to monitor the increase and loss of forest ecosystems and wetland.

The L-band system uses a 25cm wavelength that allows its signal to penetrate the forest title. This allows radar to measure soil moisture and surface ice and land movement up to a fraction of an inch.

Nicky Fox, Administrator of the NASA Science Mission Directorate Association, highlighted the potential collaboration of this satellite with India. He stated that, "These early images are just a preview of the powerful science that NISAR will produce."

He stressed that the next data and insight from NISAR could help scientists in studying land and ice surface changes on Earth. The data shared will also include unprecedented details.