"Objective:

NISAR is the first of its kind mission, jointly developed by ISRO and NASA. It is an L and S-band, global, microwave imaging mission, with capability to acquire fully polarimetric and interferometric data.

The unique dual-band Synthetic Aperture Radar of NISAR employs advanced, novel SweepSAR technique, which provides high resolution and large swath imagery. NISAR will image the global land and ice-covered surfaces, including islands, sea-ice and selected oceans every 12 days.

NISAR mission’s primary objectives are to study land & ice deformation, land ecosystems, and oceanic regions in areas of common interest to the US and Indian science communities.

NISAR mission will help to measure the woody biomass and its changes track changes in the extent of active crops understand the changes in wetlands’ extent map Greenland’s & Antarctica’s ice sheets, dynamics of sea ice and mountain glaciers characterize land surface deformation related to seismicity, volcanism, landslides, and subsidence & uplift associated with changes in subsurface aquifers, hydrocarbon reservoirs, etc.

Spacecraft Configuration

The Spacecraft is built around ISRO’s I-3K Structure. It carries two major Payloads viz., L & S- Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR).

The S-band Radar system, data handling & high- speed downlink system, the spacecraft and the launch system are developed by ISRO. The L-band Radar system, high speed downlink system, the Solid-State Recorder, GPS receiver, the 9m Boom hoisting the 12m reflector are delivered by NASA.

Further, ISRO takes care of the satellite commanding and operations, NASA will provide the orbit maneuver plan and RADAR operations plan.

NISAR mission will be aided with ground station support of both ISRO and NASA for downloading of the acquired images, which after the necessary processing will be disseminated to the user community

The data acquired through S-band and L-band SAR from a single platform will help the scientists to understand the changes happening to Planet Earth."

https://www.isro.gov.in/Mission_GSLVF16_NISAR_Home.html