Marking a milestone in the US-India space collaboration, the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) was handed over to the Indian space agency on Wednesday.

The satellite arrived in Bengaluru on a US Air Force C-17 aircraft, US Consulate in Chennai said, calling the development a "true symbol of US-India civil collaboration".

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), NISAR is a joint Earth-observing mission between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). This mission was envisioned by NASA and ISRO in 2014, eight years prior, as a potent demonstration of the capacity of radar as a research instrument and as a way to further our understanding of Earth's dynamic land and ice surfaces.

Reportedly, it is expected to be launched from Satish Dhawan Space Center into a close-polar orbit in January 2024. It is an observatory in low Earth orbit (LEO).

The satellite will operate for a minimum of three years, and in 12 days, NISAR will map the whole world.

Notably, using two distinct radar frequencies (L-band and S-band), NISAR will be the first radar of its kind in orbit to scan the Earth systematically, with the ability to monitor changes in our planet's surface that are smaller than a centimetre across.

Image courtesy: ANI