SRIHARIKOTA, ANDHRA PRADESH: Commenting on the joint satellite mission the agency has undertaken with the the US' NASA, ISRO chief S Somanath said on Saturday that the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar Satellite (NISAR) is not a surveillance project but rather one aimed at studying the Earth with a focus on sustainability and climate change. 

He added that the data the satellite will generate will be in the public domain. “So you can understand, when the data is in public domain it is not going to be surveillance satellite. First of all, the data will be shared between the US and India,” said Somnath. 

The joint mission, he said, has a focus on many things.

“...because it has image capability for about 12-14 days, imaging of the Earth can be done at a very high precision.”

"The satellite would also be able to measure water, agriculture, coverage of greenery across the Earth's surface, and so many other parameters. It also has the ability to penetrate into the Earth to look at the availability of water in arid areas," he said.

"So it is a purely a satellite which is going to help in terms of sustainability, water, environment, agriculture--the changes that are occurring on Earth due to climate change. such things are primary focus of NISAR," Somanath added.

With inputs from PTI.