NISAR Unveils Cloud-Piercing Mississippi Delta Image as Public Data Release Nears
A newly published L-band radar view showcases the satellite’s ability to map land cover through clouds with resolution sharp enough to identify the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway.
Overview
- The Nov. 29, 2025 image captures New Orleans, Baton Rouge, the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain, and surrounding wetlands, farmland, and populated areas.
- NASA’s L-band radar uses 24-centimeter microwaves to penetrate cloud cover and distinguish land-cover types, revealing healthy forests and signs of thinning trees in Maurepas Swamp.
- The mission released sample datasets and plans a broader public rollout of thousands of files in late February via the Alaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center in Fairbanks.
- The image’s detail is sufficient to clearly show the nearly 24-mile Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, underscoring the system’s high-resolution mapping capability.
- A joint NASA–ISRO effort, NISAR carries first-of-its-kind dual SAR instruments (L-band and S-band) with a 12-meter reflector to monitor Earth’s land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days and support uses from disaster response to agriculture.