NASA-ISRO Satellite Sends First Radar Images of Earth’s Surface 

by | Sep 26, 2025

Captured on Aug. 21, 2025, this image from NISAR’s L-band radar shows Maine’s Mount Desert Island. Green indicates forest; magenta represents hard or regular surfaces, like bare ground and buildings. The magenta area on the island’s northeast end is the town of Bar Harbor. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) Earth-observing radar satellite’s first images of our planet’s surface are in, and they offer a glimpse of things to come as the joint mission between NASA and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) approaches full science operations later this year.