US-India Satellite Delivers Data, Reveals ‘Hummingbird’ in Antarctica
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Earth . 4 min read US-India Satellite Delivers Data, Reveals ‘Hummingbird’ in Antarctica Jet Propulsion Laboratory https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ July 21, 2026 Scientists used data from the L-band radar aboard the U.S.-India Earth-orbiting NISAR satellite to produce this image of Nunatak Zaterjavshijsja, a mountaintop in East Antarctica, poking out amid a stream of ice flowing northeast to the ocean.
Adding to this, The image shows Nunatak Zaterjavshijsja at center-left, surrounded by ice fractured with crevasses, which are shown as sharp, green lines. The magenta portions of the image represent more regular surfaces, such as smooth ice.
Meanwhile, Data from NISAR, one of the most powerful radar systems ever launched, is now available to the world. A vivid image of Antarctic ice showcases what the satellite can do.
Notably, As of July 20, the public can access data from the two powerful radar instruments aboard the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite. Teams in the United States and India will rollout files processed from the satellite’s L-band and S-band radars on an ongoing basis, helping researchers and other users track the movement of Earth’s land and ice masses, monitor changes in ecosystems like forests and wetlands, and respond to natural hazards such as landslides and earthquakes.
As per the latest buzz, The rollout comes as NASA and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) prepare to celebrate the first anniversary of NISAR’s July 30, 2025 , launch from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre. Since that time, the mission engineering and science teams have been busy calibrating instrumentation, refining algorithms, and monitoring nearly all the planet’s land- and ice-covered surfaces twice every 12 days. Along the way, the team has captured scenes from around the globe — urban street grids , agricultural fields , landslides , earthquakes , and sinking land in Mexico City .
In further updates, An early image rolled out Tuesday revealed the fractured, barren surface of an Antarctic landscape in stark detail. In a merging of science and serendipity, it also resembles something else entirely: a hummingbird.
On top of that, Despite its otherworldly quality, the Antarctic image shows a very real geographical feature called Nunatak Zaterjavshijsja, a mountaintop in East Antarctica, poking out amid a stream of ice flowing northeast to the ocean. As the moving glacier passes the obstruction, the mountain’s topography causes stresses in the ice, heavily fracturing the surrounding surfaces with deep cracks, called crevasses, which show as sharp green lines in the image.
“First, it’s a beautiful image, with rich details of features that provide insights to how the glacier is moving. Then, because radar can often see through snow and deep into the ice, NISAR can observe fundamentally different properties of Antarctic ice than can be seen in optical imagery,” shared Seongsu Jeong, the signal analysis engineer who produced the image at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “With NISAR we’re seeing what’s hidden beneath the surface.”