Overview
- Peruvian agencies Sernanp and CONIDA announced Thursday that NASA will perform UAVSAR airborne radar flights in 2026 to study climate impacts on Andes glaciers, Amazon wetlands and tropical forests.
- UAVSAR is an airborne synthetic‑aperture radar that can penetrate clouds and dense vegetation to map flooded areas, surface water and forest structure where optical sensors struggle.
- The campaign will target six protected areas — Pacaya Samiria, Tambopata, Los Amigos, El Sira, Machupicchu and Huascarán — to measure wetland dynamics, forest biomass and glacier motion.
- Scientists will compare UAVSAR measurements with imagery from the NISAR satellite to calibrate and validate radar products, produce flood and glacier maps, and release the resulting datasets free for global research.
- The effort builds on technical coordination that began in August 2024 and on NISAR’s 2025 launch, and it aims to improve local water‑risk planning and carbon monitoring as Peruvian glaciers and forests face rapid climate change.