NASA-ISRO Radar Mission Reveals Mississippi River Delta

New NISAR satellite image showcases its ability to see through clouds and provide detailed insights on land cover.

Jan. 29, 2026 at 3:55pm

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A new image from the NASA-ISRO NISAR satellite mission shows the Mississippi River Delta region in southeastern Louisiana, including the cities of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain, and a diversity of wetlands, farmland, forests, and communities. The image, created with data collected in late fall, demonstrates NISAR's unique capability to use radar technology to peer through clouds and provide detailed insights on land cover and surface characteristics.

Why it matters

The NISAR mission's ability to see through clouds and provide high-resolution imagery of land surfaces is vital for monitoring changes in ecosystems, tracking crop growth, and supporting disaster response efforts. This new image of the Mississippi River Delta showcases the mission's potential to deliver actionable information to decision-makers in a range of fields.

The details

The NISAR satellite's L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instrument uses microwaves that can penetrate clouds and clearly image the surface below. The image reveals different land cover types, with green areas indicating buildings, magenta areas showing streets and parallel structures, and bright green forests. The yellow-and-magenta-speckled Maurepas Swamp suggests thinning tree populations in that wetland ecosystem. The data products from NISAR will be made available for download in late February, allowing users to further explore the satellite's capabilities.

  • The NISAR satellite launched on July 30, 2026.
  • The image was captured on November 29, 2026.
  • NISAR's data products will be available for download in late February 2027.

The players

NISAR

The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) is a joint Earth-observing mission developed by NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The satellite carries two synthetic aperture radar instruments that can provide detailed information about the Earth's land and ice surfaces.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California built the L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instrument on the NISAR satellite.

Alaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center

The Fairbanks-based facility that stores and distributes NASA's synthetic aperture radar data, including the data products from the NISAR mission.

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What’s next

The NISAR mission will continue to collect data and make its products available for download, providing valuable insights to researchers and decision-makers in a variety of fields.

The takeaway

The new NISAR image of the Mississippi River Delta showcases the mission's unique capabilities in using radar technology to peer through clouds and deliver detailed, actionable information about the Earth's land surfaces, which can support a wide range of applications from environmental monitoring to disaster response.