Timeline
20 April 2009
RISAT-2, an X-band satellite procured with Israeli technology (based on the IAI TecSAR platform), was launched on ahead of the indigenous flagship because t…
26 November 2008
RISAT-2, an X-band satellite procured with Israeli technology (based on the IAI TecSAR platform), was launched on 20 April 2009 ahead of the indigenous flags…
26 April 2012
The fully indigenous RISAT-1, a C-band SAR satellite weighing roughly 1,858 kg, followed on , becoming India's heaviest remote-sensing satellite at the time.
22 May 2019
Subsequent launches addressed continuity and capability: RISAT-2B (), RISAT-2BR1 (11 December 2019), and the EOS-04 (RISAT-1A) satellite launched on 14 Febru…
11 December 2019
Subsequent launches addressed continuity and capability: RISAT-2B (22 May 2019), RISAT-2BR1 (), and the EOS-04 (RISAT-1A) satellite launched on 14 February 2…
14 February 2022
Subsequent launches addressed continuity and capability: RISAT-2B (22 May 2019), RISAT-2BR1 (11 December 2019), and the EOS-04 (RISAT-1A) satellite launched…
30 July 2025
The forthcoming NISAR mission—a joint NASA–ISRO L-band and S-band dual-frequency SAR satellite, launched on —represents a generational leap beyond RISAT in i…
Positions at a glance
Supporters
Contemporary applications span both civilian and security domains. The Department of Agriculture and the Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre use RISAT C-band data for kharif crop acreage estimation when optical satellites are clouded out. The National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) in Hyderabad employs RISAT imagery for flood inundation mapping during Brahmaputra and Ganga basin events, for cyclone monitoring along the Bay of Bengal coast, and for forestry and soil-moisture assessment. On the security side, the higher-resolution X-band satellites support border surveillance along the Line of Control and the Line of Actual Control and maritime domain awareness in the Indian Ocean Region. Reporting linked RISAT capabilities to surveillance preceding the 2016 surgical strikes and the 2019 Balakot operation, though ISRO maintains its civilian mandate.
Opponents
The technical mechanics rest on the radar physics of synthetic aperture imaging. A real radar antenna small enough to fly on a satellite would yield poor azimuth resolution; SAR overcomes this by exploiting the satellite's orbital motion to synthesise a much larger virtual aperture, combining successive radar pulses coherently to achieve metre-scale resolution. RISAT sensors operate principally in the C-band (around 5.35 GHz) and the X-band, each suited to different applications—C-band penetrates vegetation and soil moisture usefully for agriculture and flood mapping, while shorter X-band wavelengths sharpen resolution for reconnaissance. The satellites image in multiple modes: high-resolution spotlight, fine-resolution stripmap, and wider-swath ScanSAR, trading spatial detail against ground coverage. Polarimetry—transmitting and receiving in horizontal and vertical orientations (HH, VV, HV, VH)—allows analysts to discriminate surface types, crop structure, and man-made objects.
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ISRO launched RISAT-2B aboard a PSLV from Sriharikota on 22 May 2019, adding an X-band synthetic aperture radar satellite to India's all-weather surveillance and disaster-monitoring constellation.
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