NASA's L-band imaging radar on the joint NASA–ISRO NISAR satellite. Its 24 cm waves reach through vegetation to track tiny movements of the ground and ice.
L-band waves are long, about 24 cm, so they pass through thicker vegetation than shorter radar waves. Repeated L-band images of the same place show how land and ice move and change, which is the mission's main science goal.
The L-band radar shares a 12 m mesh reflector with ISRO's S-band radar. The reflector sits at the end of a 9 m boom supplied by NASA. Using a technique called SweepSAR, the radar covers a strip about 240 km wide while keeping detail of a few metres. NISAR images the world's land and ice every 12 days.
NASA provided the L-band radar, the reflector boom, a solid-state recorder and a GPS receiver. ISRO's GSLV-F16 launched NISAR on 30 July 2025. NISAR science data are freely available to the public.