NASA and ISRO are all set to declare their first-ever jointly developed NISAR satellite operational on Friday, ISRO chairman V Narayanan said there Wednesday.

The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), said to be the most expensive Earth observation satellite ever built, has the ability to monitor most of the planet’s land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days.

The 2,400 kg NISAR satellite was launched July 30 from ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre using the GSLV rocket.

“Entire data calibration has been completed, and we will have a conclave November 7 to declare the satellite operational,” Narayanan said at the Emerging Science, Technology and Innovation Conclave (ESTIC) here.

The NISAR mission is the first to carry two SAR systems, the L-Band and S-Band sensors.

The L-band rada

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