That is NISAR satellite tv for pc’s second of reality: the world’s costliest civilian Earth imaging satellite tv for pc was constructed to trace Himalayan hazards amongst others. Why is it lacking in motion from the Nepal flood story?
When India and the US launched the $1.3 billion NASA-ISRO Artificial Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission greater than a yr in the past, it was hailed as a revolutionary Earth statement satellite tv for pc that might assist humanity perceive and reply to among the planet’s largest challenges. Geared up with superior dual-frequency radar and able to measuring adjustments on Earth’s floor to millimetre precision, NISAR satellite tv for pc, additionally dubbed the Nisarga satellite tv for pc, was anticipated to watch glaciers, detect floor deformation, observe landslides, research earthquakes, and supply essential info for catastrophe administration.
The Himalayas, with their fragile glaciers, energetic tectonics, and rising dangers from local weather change, had been anticipated to be one of many key focuses of the mission.
But, questions are actually being raised after the catastrophic flash floods in Nepal’s Rasuwa district that induced widespread devastation and lack of life. A catastrophe apparently linked to glacial collapse and large motion of ice, water, rock, and particles in some of the weak areas of the Himalayas– precisely the sort of occasion that NISAR was designed to watch and analyse.
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So The place Was NISAR?
The uncomfortable query being requested by scientists, catastrophe specialists, and policymakers is that this: if the world’s most subtle civilian Earth imaging satellite tv for pc is now in orbit and systematically gathering knowledge, why has there been no public NISAR-based evaluation, warning perception, or main scientific evaluation explaining the origins and evolution of one of many Himalayan area’s largest disasters?
That query turns into much more placing when one revisits the ambitions articulated by NASA and ISRO themselves.
NASA has repeatedly said that NISAR would assist observe disasters, monitor ecosystems and crops, research glaciers and ice sheets, and perceive how Earth’s floor strikes and adjustments.
NASA stated the info it supplies will assist defend lives, help the administration of pure sources, and provides us a deeper understanding of our altering planet than ever earlier than.
ISRO was equally formidable.
“NISAR will picture the worldwide land and ice-covered surfaces, together with islands, sea-ice and chosen oceans each 12 days. NISAR mission’s major targets are to check land & ice deformation, land ecosystems, and oceanic areas in areas of widespread curiosity to the US and Indian science communities. The NISAR (NASA-ISRO Artificial Aperture Radar) mission is a joint collaboration between NASA and the Indian House Analysis Organisation (ISRO) – a satellite tv for pc outfitted with superior radar devices for Earth statement. It goals to supply high-resolution measurements of Earth’s floor adjustments, corresponding to tectonic shifts, glaciers, and forest disturbances, enhancing our understanding of pure hazards and local weather change.”
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To be truthful ISRO has deployed its personal radar imaging satellite tv for pc, Resourcesat 2A, Cartosat 3A for evaluation and Planet Labs has been releasing satellite tv for pc imagery. However nothing in public area from NISAR satellite tv for pc both by ISRO or NASA.
Few individuals articulated the mission’s promise extra clearly than Dr. Paul Rosen, NISAR Undertaking Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
In an unique interview with NDTV earlier than launch, Dr. Rosen stated, “It is a science mission and functions mission. We’re finding out the cryosphere, ecosystems, and strong earth hazards like earthquakes and landslides. It’s totally a lot a local weather mission.”
He went even additional.
“We are able to make 3D motion pictures of the motions of the Earth, all of the land and ice. Nothing in standard distant sensing can try this.”
Describing the satellite tv for pc’s capabilities, he defined that NISAR “would be capable to measure floor movement with millimetre precision, serving to scientists perceive earthquake cycles earlier than, throughout, and after main occasions.”
He additionally highlighted landslides and harmful glacial lake outburst floods as key utility areas.
“We are able to see precursory movement earlier than landslides. And we’ll monitor glacier dynamics to evaluate GLOF dangers.”
These statements are notably related at present.
The Nepal catastrophe occurred in exactly the atmosphere the place NISAR was anticipated to shine. The Himalayan area is characterised by unstable slopes, retreating glaciers, glacial lakes, tectonic exercise, and quickly altering mountain landscapes. The Rasuwa disaster seems to contain precisely the kind of cryospheric and geomorphological processes that NISAR was designed to watch.
The distinction between the mission’s promise and the obvious absence of a public NISAR evaluation has turn into more durable to disregard as a result of ISRO and NASA themselves celebrated the spacecraft’s first yr in orbit solely weeks in the past.
On August 4, 2026, the 2 house companies collectively commemorated one yr of NISAR operations throughout an occasion in Bengaluru titled “NISAR One 12 months of Operations: Assessing Efficiency, Advancing Science, and Strengthening Partnership.”
The occasion showcased mission achievements, scientific outcomes, knowledge dissemination, and future alternatives.
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ISRO Chairman Dr V Narayanan praised the collaboration and urged scientists to totally exploit the mission to deal with vital scientific challenges for the good thing about humanity.
NASA officers spoke of NISAR’s world significance.
Dr Karen M St Germain, Director of NASA’s Earth Science Division, highlighted the mission’s unprecedented quantity of information for understanding Earth’s techniques.
NASA’s Phil Barela referred to as the collaboration “a partnership past a spacecraft.”
On July 31, 2026 NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory stated: “Our satellites develop up so quick. It has been one yr since NISAR launched from India to check Earth’s land and ice surfaces, offering perception into how our planet is altering.”
Dr Rosen himself showcased how NISAR’s L-band radar was observing ecosystems, the cryosphere, and the strong Earth.
ISRO scientists highlighted functions involving forest biomass, soil moisture, energetic crops, ocean floor winds, mangroves, forest disturbances, and floor deformation.
All the pieces appeared to recommend that NISAR was delivering precisely what had been promised.
But the Nepal catastrophe has turn into a tough take a look at case.
To be clear, there isn’t a public proof that NISAR was designed as an operational warning satellite tv for pc that might individually predict each flood, landslide, glacier collapse, or earthquake. Neither is there publicly accessible proof that the mission failed technically.
Nonetheless, when NASA and ISRO themselves promote capabilities involving glacier monitoring, landslide precursors, floor deformation measurements, and hazard evaluation, it’s affordable to ask what insights NISAR has supplied concerning some of the severe Himalayan disasters in current reminiscence.
The Questions Are Easy
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On August 17, 2026 in a public assertion ISRO stated: “NISAR continues to systematically gather valuable knowledge to grasp the Earth’s dynamics to drive developments throughout a number of scientific disciplines, together with ecosystem, strong earth, cryosphere, hydrology, oceanography, coastal-processes, geoscience and catastrophe response.”
It isn’t that NISAR has not assisted in disasters. On June 29, 2026, NASA’s JPL stated in a press release: “Two highly effective earthquakes struck Venezuela. NASA satellites are offering vital help, capturing imagery and knowledge to assist groups on the bottom assess impacts and information response efforts. This map, created with knowledge from the NISAR mission, reveals how the quakes shifted the land floor, providing key insights for emergency managers and scientists.” This got here inside days of the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck Venezuela on June 24, 2026.
On the Nepal tragedy the silence is especially placing as a result of NASA and ISRO agreed that NISAR knowledge can be overtly accessible.
“The info might be positioned within the public archive nearly immediately after processing. NASA and ISRO have agreed. It is a science mission, and all radar knowledge might be open,” Dr Rosen had stated.
At a time when a whole lot of lives have been misplaced and scientists are attempting to grasp what occurred in Nepal, the world would naturally count on NISAR satellites and its knowledge to be on the forefront of that effort.
Responding to NDTV after the Nepal catastrophe, Dr Rosen stated: “NISAR simply takes the info, it does not analyse it. Folks do. We’re simply starting the time sequence wanted to trace precursory behaviours. As soon as the groups develop automated instruments to look all around the Himalayas for nominal and anomalous behaviours, then now we have a hope of figuring out the danger. NISAR being the primary satellite tv for pc of its type, it should take a while to grasp the info and it is potential for forecasting this sort of occasion.”
In spite of everything, this isn’t simply one other Earth statement satellite tv for pc. It carries the most important 12 meter un-furlable radar antenna ever deployed in low Earth orbit, integrates leading edge American and Indian radar expertise, and represents some of the formidable Earth science collaborations ever undertaken.
The satellite tv for pc is in orbit. The info is supposedly flowing. The mission has accomplished a full yr of operations.
But one of many first main Himalayan disasters of the NISAR period arrived, and the mission’s scientific voice is conspicuously absent from the general public dialog.
Maybe detailed analyses are underway and can emerge within the coming weeks. Maybe scientists want time to course of knowledge and validate conclusions. These are totally believable explanations.
However till such solutions arrive, a troubling notion stays.
The satellite tv for pc that was promoted as humanity’s new window into glaciers, landslides, floor deformation, and local weather pushed change seems absent when the world most needs to listen to what it has seen.
For a mission constructed to watch Earth’s most dynamic and harmful processes, the Nepal tragedy has turn into an sudden take a look at. The approaching days might decide whether or not NISAR emerges because the indispensable catastrophe science software it was promised to be, or whether or not uncomfortable questions proceed to develop about why the costliest civilian Earth imaging satellite tv for pc ever constructed has to date had so little to say a few disaster unfolding in one of many very areas it was designed to observe most carefully. The silence of the NISAR satellite tv for pc knowledge is louder than the roar of the falling ice within the catastrophe.
