For more than a hundred years, scientists have believed that the melting of glaciers and sea ice is an early sign of global warming. This is one of the most important of the NISAR mission objectives suggested by NASA. Read the analysis of Pallav Bagla
soon Sky a new Indian-American in robotic satellite Occurrence of landslides like Joshimath and Himalaya Will save precious lives of people by keeping an eye on landslides. It is a unique satellite designed to monitor the Earth both day and night. The objective of the mission is to reduce the risk of disasters.
India and the US have jointly built this satellite which will use radar to take pictures of the Earth like never before. According to an estimate, it has cost more than a billion dollars to build the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite (NISAR). It is apparently the most expensive earth imaging satellite in the world so far. A 2017 statement by NASA said that the entire 3-5 year mission would cost more than $1.5 billion.
today’s big news
Will be launched this year
The satellite made jointly by India-US will be launched from Sriharikota. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman S Somnath will flag off the departure of this huge device on February 1, 2023, in a big event. It will be brought to India from the world famous Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
India’s Science and Technology Minister Dr Jitendra Singh confirmed that NISAR will be launched in 2023. Earlier, Dr Singh had told the Parliament that ISRO’s share of work in the total cost of the project would cost around Rs 788.00 crore and JPL’s share of work would cost around USD 808 million.
Somnath said that India first prepared its payload and sent it to JPL in California. American radar was added to it and it was tested for a few months. It was ensured that there is no interference between the two radar imaging devices. Los Angeles, Pasadena, NASA’s Jetpropulsion Lab’s Project Scientist for the NISAR satellite, Paul A. Rosen, recently said that NISAR is the first major collaboration between NASA and ISRO. This cooperation is not only about radar but in general about every aspect of satellites.
Will this alliance give surprising results?
In 2008, on India’s first mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-1, NASA sent two of its instruments and gave a new dimension to lunar research by discovering the presence of water molecules on the lunar surface. Can this new alliance of the 21st century produce surprising results; Scientists of both countries are really excited. It is a two-frequency radar with a 24-centimeter L-band and a 13-centimeter S-band. S-band is prepared by ISRO and L-band by NASA.
“This is an important alliance between India and the US on working together in the Pacific region with satellite technical cooperation. We are going to take pictures of the Earth every week using these two radars which will give us new information on important topics like changes in the presence of vegetation in agriculture and forests, the time it takes for tectonic plates to move, the dynamics of ice caps Will give
Nisar will tell about disasters
It will tell us how disasters develop, how earthquakes occur, how volcanoes form, how the ice sheets on Earth are melting or changing, and how sea levels are rising. It will also be known that how forest fires bring changes in the forest cover of the earth and affect the atmosphere. This is very relevant. Everything that society cares about is present in it. It shows us how climate change and environmental change affect society,” Rosen said.
If all goes well, the Nisar satellite will be launched from India in September 2023 using the Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark 2 (GSLV Mk2). Somnath said the GSLV Mk2 is the ‘best suited’ launch vehicle for this particular mission.
Satellite will study environmental change
Highlighting the scientific goals, NASA said, this dedicated American and Indian mission is designed to study hazards and global environmental change. This mission will globally assess the causes and consequences of changes on the Earth’s surface. NISAR will send images and provide solutions to natural hazards, including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides, along with shrinking ice sheets, at many places on Earth.
Melting sea ice first sign of global warming
For more than a hundred years, scientists have believed that the melting of glaciers and sea ice is an early sign of global warming. This is one of the most important of the NISAR mission objectives suggested by NASA. Satellite images collected over three decades show that sea ice cover is rapidly decreasing during summer. It may disappear completely in the next few decades. The ice sheets and glaciers are already melting at a rapid rate which increases the sea level.
In the coming century, the sea level may increase by ten centimeters or more. The loss of sea ice cover in the Arctic will have profound effects on life, climate and commercial activities. The loss of ice on land will affect the water source for millions of people. Looking at these effects as a whole, it is known that even over a long distance, the change in ice causes climate change, which has a big economic impact along with the health of the world.
Nisar satellite is about saving human life. In true sense, this new jugalbandi between the world’s oldest and largest democracies has come at a time when India, the mother of all democracies, is presiding over the G-20.
(Pallav Bagla writes on science. He is the co-author of the books ‘Destination Moon’ and ‘Reaching for the Stars: India’s Journey to Mars and Beyond’)
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