NISAR Radar Pierces Clouds, Reveals Mississippi Delta in Stunning Detail

• NASA-ISRO's NISAR mission demonstrates its cloud-piercing radar capability with a detailed image of the Mississippi River Delta.
• The image, captured in late autumn, showcases landmarks like New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Lake Pontchartrain, revealing urban, wetland, and agricultural areas.
• Unlike optical images, NISAR's L-band synthetic aperture radar uses microwaves to see through clouds, enabling continuous observation regardless of weather.
• The radar data highlights subtle surface differences, showing building layouts in urban areas and indicating thinning tree populations in Maurepas Swamp.
• NISAR, launched from India, will observe Earth's land and ice surfaces every 12 days, providing data for disaster response, infrastructure, and agriculture.

Why It Matters: NISAR's advanced radar technology offers unprecedented, cloud-independent views of Earth's surface for critical global monitoring.