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The Conversation
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Steve Petrie, Earth Observation Researcher, Swinburne University of Technology

A 3-tonne, $1.5 billion satellite to watch Earth’s every move is set to launch this week

Earth NISAR NASA India Chennai Satish Dhawan Space Centre
Artist's concept of the NISAR satellite in orbit over Earth. NASA/JPL-Caltech

In a few days, a new satellite that can detect changes on Earth’s surface down to the centimetre, in almost real time and no matter the time of day or weather conditions, is set to launch from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre near Chennai.

Weighing almost 3 tonnes and boasting a 12-metre radar antenna, the US$1.5 billion NISAR satellite will track the ground under our feet and the water that flows over and through it in unprecedented detail, providing valuable information for farmers, climate scientists and natural disaster response teams.

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