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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 climate change. It will also add to our understanding of our planet's hard outer layer, called its crust.

Early Engagement

Interested in learning more about NISAR and becoming more involved? The NISAR team has workshops, working groups and other activities designed to inform and expand the NISAR user community.

Featured Applications White Papers

  • Earthquake Hazards and Damage

    Earthquakes occur suddenly, often with intense ground shaking that causes loss of life and property. They and their aftershocks can induce landslides, lead to fires, and even bring neighboring faults closer to rupture. NISAR will provide measurements of ground deformation along faults before an earthquake occurs, from the earthquake itself, and in the time following, all key information for understanding where and why earthquakes occur.

  • Soil Moisture and Water Resources

    NISAR will provide maps of surface soil moisture globally every 6 to 12 days at the spatial scale of individual farm fields. This offers unprecedented detail and is vital for monitoring the habitats of plants, animals and humans.

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.

NASA partnership with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)

NISAR is a joint Earth-observing mission between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). NASA and ISRO are providing two radars that are optimized each in their own way to allow the mission to observe a wider range of changes than either one alone.