US-India partnership in NISAR mission will help optimise natural resources of world: US

The US State Department on Thursday referred to the joint Earth-observing mission— NISAR, between ISRO of India and NASA, and observed that the "stellar" partnership between the two nations will be a very useful tool to address the matters pertaining to disaster preparedness while it will also cater to the need for management of natural resources across the world.
 
The Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, US State Department was quoted by ANI as saying "Thrilled with NASA and ISRO collaborating together on satellites. This stellar US-India partnership will help optimise the management of the world's natural resources and enhance disaster preparedness. India recently shipped critical components to the US to support the NISAR mission."

Equipment in place for mission by NASA and ISRO

The joint earth-observatory mission NISAR is aimed at making global measurements of the causes and consequences of land surface changes by using advanced radar imaging, something that NASA has been using for a long time now. The mission will be equipped with high-end tools that will help scientists in NASA and ISRO fetch information about the earth using satellite imagery. The tools NASA is providing include a radar reflector antenna, a high-rate communication subsystem, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder, and a payload data subsystem; while ISRO will provide the launch vehicle, the spacecraft bus, the S-band SAR, and the associated launch services that India specialises in.

A large satellite equipped with one of the largest reflector antennae is taking shape in the cleanroom at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. As per a statement issued by NASA, "By tracking subtle changes in Earth's surface, it will spot warning signs of imminent volcanic eruptions, help to monitor groundwater supplies, track the melt rate of ice sheets tied to sea-level rise, and observe shifts in the distribution of vegetation around the world."