NASA Uses 2025 NISAR Radar Data to Reveal Hidden East Antarctic Ice
Updated
Updated · The Economic Times · Jul 23
NASA Uses 2025 NISAR Radar Data to Reveal Hidden East Antarctic Ice
3 articles · Updated · The Economic Times · Jul 23
Summary
August 2025 L-band radar measurements from the US-India NISAR satellite were turned into a new image of East Antarctica’s Nunatak Zaterjavshijsja, exposing ice properties not visible in optical imagery.
Radar polarization drives the image: magenta marks smoother ice, green shows signals penetrating snow or scattering off crevasses, and white highlights areas with mixed surface characteristics.
NASA said NISAR’s L-band and S-band systems can track land and ice movement while also supporting studies of forests and wetlands and responses to earthquakes, landslides and floods.
US and Indian teams will keep releasing processed NISAR data, extending the satellite’s role in monitoring Antarctica and other hard-to-observe environments through clouds and darkness.
With NISAR's data now public, what early discoveries are challenging our understanding of Earth's changing landscapes?
NISAR's data deluge is here. Are we prepared to turn this flood of information into actionable, life-saving knowledge?
NISAR’s First Public Data Release: Transforming Global Earth Observation with Dual-Frequency Radar (2026)
Overview
On July 20, 2026, the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission marked a new era in Earth observation with its first public data release. Launched in July 2025, NISAR is equipped with advanced dual L-band and S-band Synthetic Aperture Radar instruments, designed to provide an unprecedented view of Earth's dynamic surface. The initial L-band data became immediately available to the global scientific community through open-access platforms, offering researchers access to diverse provisional datasets. This milestone opens up new possibilities for studying Earth's changes and supports broad scientific collaboration worldwide.