US-India NISAR Satellite Opens Public Data Access with Antarctic Radar Imagery
Processed files from the NISAR satellite are now available to researchers globally, offering new insights into ice movement, ecosystems, and natural hazards through advanced synthetic aperture radar technology.
As of July 20, 2026, the public gained access to processed data from the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite, a joint Earth observation mission between the United States and India. The release includes files from the satellite’s L-band and S-band radar instruments, enabling researchers to monitor Earth’s land and ice masses, track changes in ecosystems such as forests and wetlands, and respond to natural hazards including landslides and earthquakes.
The data release coincides with preparations for the mission’s first anniversary, marking one year since the satellite’s launch on July 30, 2025, from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre. Since launch, mission teams have been calibrating instrumentation and refining algorithms while monitoring nearly all of the planet’s land- and ice-covered surfaces twice every 12 days. This frequent coverage allows the satellite to scan from within a few degrees of the South Pole to 77.5 degrees north latitude, above the Arctic Circle.
An early image released by the mission team depicts the Nunatak Zaterjavshijsja in East Antarctica, revealing detailed ice fractures caused by glacial movement. Generated using L-band measurements gathered in August 2025 during system testing, the false-colour radar image shows a mountaintop poking out amid a stream of ice flowing northeast to the ocean. The mountain’s topography causes stresses in the passing glacier, creating deep cracks known as crevasses that appear as sharp green lines in the imagery.
The image, which resembles a hummingbird, utilises false-colour radar data to distinguish between different ice properties. Magenta indicates horizontal polarization, reflecting smooth ice surfaces, while green represents vertical polarization, or volume scattering, caused by signals refracting through snow and ice or scattering off irregular crevasse faces. White areas indicate a blend of both signal types. Unlike optical imagery, which shows the scene almost entirely as white with slight shadows, NISAR’s radar can see through snow and deep into the ice to observe hidden structural details.
The U.S. component, managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, began a continuous release of calibrated L-band data on July 20, with files hosted at the Alaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center in Fairbanks. The Indian team, based at ISRO’s Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad, is releasing S-band data via the Bhoonidhi portal. The satellite features the largest radar antenna reflector NASA has sent into space, measuring 39 feet (12 meters) wide, allowing it to collect vast amounts of data on the order of dozens of terabytes a day.
