On Wednesday, March 8, the United States Air Force handed over the NISAR satellite to the Indian space agency. The US Air Force C-17 aircraft brought an Earth observation satellite known as NISAR and landed in Bengaluru to hand over to India Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The US Consulate General Chennai tweeted, "Touchdown in Bengaluru!"  to inform that ISRO received NISAR.

See the Tweet here.

The satellite  NASA-ISRO synthetic aperture radar (NISAR) is a project collaboratively developed by NASA and ISRO. This was envisioned eight years ago in 2014 by NASA and ISRO to launch dual frequency synthetic aperture radar on an Earth observation satellite.

NISAR will be the first dual frequency radar imaging satellite that uses two different frequencies (L-band and S-band). According to the NISAR's official website, it is designed with a Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that can produce fine-resolution images even from a resolution-limited radar system.

The NISAR mission is planned to launch in January 2024 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, into a near-polar orbit. It will operate for at least three years, map the globe in 12 days, and send consistent data to study in detail Earth's dynamic land and ice surfaces.

The NISAR will be used for various purposes by ISRO. It will provide a bunch of data and information that helps to measure the changes on the planet's surface, such as melting glaciers, changes in carbon storage, sea level rise, depletion in groundwater levels, and examining the impact of global warming.

It will also help to manage natural hazards such as tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions to assess and manage the risk better by making response times faster.

Moreover, it will help to improve agriculture, such as crop growth, and detect the early signs of drought by measuring soil moisture and wildfires.