How Fieldwork in the Amazon Is Supporting NASA Climate Science - NISAR Mission Travelogue

A joint U.S.-India satellite mission called NISAR - the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission - will soon set out with new tools to better understand climate change. As a way to validate the satellite’s global, space-based observations, NASA scientists went to the Peruvian Amazon to install a network of sensors that will help calibrate measurements from the NISAR spacecraft.
Why the Amazon? In tropical wetlands, changes in seasonal flooding cycles can lead to increased production of greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide.
A collaboration between NASA and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), NISAR will use a sophisticated radar system to track wetland inundation and other changes to Earth’s surface. The satellite is expected to launch in early 2024 from ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India.
For more information on the NISAR mission, visit: nisar.jpl.nasa.gov/.
Credit: Video production and NISAR animations: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Methane animations: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio; Amazon field work footage courtesy of A. Pruna

[@r.m10234]

I first heard about NISAR project in 2015. Glad that it is in the field.

[@dphuntsman]

I liked the blue Star Trek Science Officer’s shirt one guy was wearing!

[@murph_mustela]

I've noticed a lot of trekkies seem to work at NASA! :)

[@dphuntsman]

@@murph_mustela Yup!

[@jairalvarezacosta1671]

India 🇮🇳 and USA 🇺🇲 working together

[@anaolvera4302]

Siii, unión interesante

[@murph_mustela]

They are doing a lot of that! Look up ISRO, they're doing so much with NASA now, it's great.

[@murph_mustela]

0:24 Could anyone identify that weird little critter? Looks almost like picture of Eothyris or some other pelycosaur!

[@willykang1293]

Can I join JPL?

[@user-lc4un8zi6m]

It is good that NASA and JPL are doing something for the climate change problems!!! Bravo!!! 👍🌎

[@murph_mustela]

​@@mxlzzu They do a lot! Climate science requires a huge amount of satellite monitoring to gather the necessary data. For example - the name of the project slips my mind - but one satellite program monitored methane emissions and found unexpectedly high methane concentrations (leaks) around certain industrial areas - this meant the companies were able to find out about their methane leakages and get their emissions under control. There are also so many satellite missions that monitor changes in glacial ice, so we can see how the polar regions are being affected. And even a lot of the energy-generating or insulating technologies developed for spacecraft have possible applications for more efficient energy generation or temperature regulation.

[@user-ly1sx8ci8z]

I🎖

[@thePronto]

She's shopping for a BE-4. They're sold out and are back-ordered unto 2025. Supply chain issues, apparently. Something about customers flinging them into the ocean instead of recycling.

[@tetekofa]

I'm glad things are warming-up. Can't wait till things get warmer.

[@murph_mustela]

Man, certainly not me! This week's been getting too many days around 100ºF / 37ºC. Some parts of the country reaching the high 40s, even the fifties. Can't even leave the house, ugh.

[@murph_mustela]

Some of the forest in my area's been dying off now too, so I'm losing shady spots to go running. Fire season's starting earlier and earlier and lasting longer. Now it's starting to overlap with the American fire season so we're short on the gear we'd normally share with them. Really frustrating.

[@tetekofa]

Well good, this is great news! I live in TN and the winters are killing me, the faster it warms up the better! Hallelujah

[@murph_mustela]

​@@tetekofa lol, can we swap countries please??

[@help-someone-in-requirements]

JPL; Help someone in requirements ! 🍉🍌

[@markwilliams5654]

Probably not alot and paid a load of money 😮.....whats an ice age 😂

[@SpacePirate313]

Looking for lost High technology.

[@zahirmurji]

Can you elaborate more please.

[@TheStockwell]

Spoiler alert: you're asking someone who sees alien spacecraft and knows NASA is hiding the truth from us. Good luck! 😳 ​@@zahirmurji

[@chrismoore9223]

Mfs in the jungle... This is why we haven't been back to the moon...

[@murph_mustela]

Did you watch the video? This is needed to calibrate and test a satellite!

[@ekonomija8718]

What are you on about ? These kinds of projects are exactly why the space program is awesome : there are so many applications to directly help our livelihoods, like monitoring climate change !

[@alexhernandez1789]

What they need to do is to quit cutting trees down. But nobody listens they want money. So are you gonna do that to mess up? The rain forest heavenly father bring the thunder.