A satellite that will show Earth in a way we’ve never seen before may be able to save lives and crops, predict mudslides and even the size of storm surges. FOX 13’s Lloyd Sowers reports.

Florida

The NISAR satellite, developed by NASA at a cost of $1.5 billion, is scheduled for launch soon. It is designed to observe Earth's land and ice surfaces with advanced radar technology, providing near real-time data on environmental changes. The satellite will be capable of penetrating jungle canopies and heavy clouds, measuring soil moisture, and detecting minor changes in shorelines and other landscapes. 

NISAR's data is expected to assist in predicting natural disasters such as mudslides, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes, as well as supporting agricultural planning and infrastructure resilience. The information will be made available to disaster preparedness teams, policymakers, and builders. The satellite will orbit the Earth, scanning all land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days, and is scheduled to launch from India.

Earth-observing satellite to launch next week

a few days from now, the new machine is scheduled to be orbiting high above our heads looking down at us. Now, it is not a spy satellite, but it will be looking at Earth in a way that we have never seen before. What this satellite sees could save lives, could save crops, predict mudslides, and even the size of storm surges like we saw last year. FOX 13's Lloyd Sowers joins us, and Lloyd, this sounds amazing. Yeah, guys, it really is. This satellite will be able to see down through jungle canopies, down through heavy clouds. In our case, we'll be able to see down through the mangroves into the wetlands to see changes in our shorelines. It will look down on our farms, even measure the soil's moisture content. We've never really seen an eye in the sky like this one. The final launch preparations are underway for the NISAR satellite. It will deploy an antenna that's the size of a school bus and use two kinds of radar to scan the planet, detecting small, constant changes in the Earth that could bring impacts such as natural disasters. Helping to ensure that as a nation, we can abundantly feed ourselves, build resilient housing and transportation systems, and better prepare and respond to natural hazards. Scientists say it could help predict volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. The NISAR satellite will use its radar as making constant images so that even minor changes in a shoreline, for example, can then be used to plan for disasters and future plans for where we live. There's going to come a time where, you know, we're going to have to say, okay, we really shouldn't build here because this area is just going to keep getting knocked down or flooded out. Local space expert Emily Carney says this space mission to look at our planet may be more critical than looking at other planets. And she says we're still at the beginning of Earth monitoring. We're looking back and we're still discovering the place we're from for the first time. NASA spent a billion and a half dollars on the NISAR mission to monitor the Earth. It's been decades in development. This new satellite called NISAR will observe all of the Earth's land and the ice-covered surfaces twice every 12 days. So it's constant and it will show changes virtually in real time as it orbits. The data will be available to disaster preparedness folks, to policymakers, to builders, you name it. The satellite was built here in the U.S. It is scheduled to launch from India next Wednesday, July 30th. Pretty exciting. Wow, sure is. You know, we do as much as we can to plan and prepare down here on Earth, but having this up there opens up a whole new universe of ways for us to get ready. Sure does. All right, Lloyd, thank you.

CBS News has learned that a new assessment of the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June finds that only one of three facilities was possibly destroyed. CBS News senior national security correspondent Charlie D'Agata has the details.

Tehran

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As Suwayda

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