NISAR will provide scientists with valuable data as it monitors ice-sheet changes, sea-level rises, ecosystems shifts and more. According to NASA, the satellite will scan forests and wetlands and study both human-driven and natural changes to these environments.

A formidable new radar satellite jointly developed by the United States and India launched Wednesday, designed to track subtle changes in Earth's land and ice surfaces and help predict both natural and human-caused hazards.

The satellite called NISAR — short for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar — will operate from a near-polar-circling orbit 464 miles high. It will join dozens of Earth observation missions already in operation by the U.S. and India.