NISAR, at 2392 kg, flew from Sriharikota as the first ISRO-NASA joint satellite
Background
NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, NISAR, the first joint satellite of ISRO and NASA, was launched by ISRO's GSLV-F16 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota.
GSLV-F16 was to inject the satellite into a 743 km Sun-synchronous orbit with an inclination of 98.4 degrees.
NISAR weighs 2392 kg and is the first satellite to observe the earth with a dual frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar, NASA's L-band and ISRO's S-band, both using NASA's 12m unfurlable mesh reflector antenna integrated to ISRO's modified I3K satellite bus.
It observes the earth with a swath of 242 km at high spatial resolution, using SweepSAR technology for the first time, and scans the entire globe to provide all weather, day and night data at a 12-day interval.
It can detect small changes in the Earth's surface such as ground deformation, ice sheet movement and vegetation dynamics, with further applications in sea ice classification, ship detection, shoreline monitoring, storm characterization, soil moisture and surface water resources.
In plain words
SAR Synthetic Aperture Radar — A radar that builds a high resolution image from the motion of the platform carrying it.
Sun-synchronous orbit Sun-synchronous orbit — A near-polar orbit in which the satellite passes over a place at the same local solar time each visit.