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Full catalog/NISAR_TEC
NISAR_TEC·v1·dataset

Electrons in the upper atmosphere, from radar (NISAR)

NISAR Total Electron Content
land NASA ASF Level 1A active JSON
In plain English

What it measures. The amount of free electrons in the upper atmosphere along the radar's signal path (total electron content), which affects how radar and GPS signals travel.

How it's made. Derived from the radar measurements of the NISAR satellite, a joint NASA-ISRO mission.

How & where you'd use it. Mainly used to correct radar signals for atmospheric interference and to study the electrically charged upper atmosphere (the ionosphere). Largely a technical input product.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › RADAR

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2025-08-26 → ongoing
  • Measured byNISAR (L-SAR, S-SAR)
  • Processing levelLevel 1A
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsJSON
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) Total Electron Content collection for the NISAR mission.

Get the data

nisar_tec_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="NISAR_TEC",
    version="1",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from ASF
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.