US-Indian Space Mission Maps Extreme Subsidence in Mexico City
One of the most powerful radar systems ever launched into space has mapped the moving ground beneath one of the world’s fastest capitals: Mexico City. The results show how quickly and reliably the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite can track real-time changes on the Earth’s surface from its orbit, unhindered by clouds or vegetation that hamper optical sensors and high-frequency radars.
Home to some 20 million people, the Mexico City region is built on top of an aquifer. Intensive pumping of groundwater, combined with the weight of urban development, resulted in the ancient lake bed beneath the city being compacted for more than a century. An engineer first documented the problem in 1925, and by the 1990s and 2000s, parts of the metropolitan area were sinking about 14 inches per year, damaging infrastructure including the subway, one of the largest rapid transit systems in the Americas.
Several generations of space radars have tracked Mexico City on the move. The NISAR mission, launched in July 2025, now continues these efforts by analyzing areas that are rapidly changing and difficult to study from space. Capable of operating day or night, rain or shine, NISAR’s L-band synthetic aperture radar is designed to track subtle movements such as land subsidence and rise, glacier sliding and cropland growth, as it passes overhead several times a month.
“Images like this confirm that NISAR’s measurements match expectations,” said Craig Ferguson, deputy project manager at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “NISAR’s long-wavelength L-band radar will enable the detection and tracking of land subsidence in more challenging, heavily vegetated regions, such as coastal communities, where they can have the cumulative effects of land subsidence and sea level rise.”
The new analysis is based on preliminary measurements taken by NISAR between October 2025 and January 2026, during Mexico City’s dry season. Parts of the region that are sinking more than half an inch (more than 2 centimeters) per month are shown in dark blue. The yellow and red areas are likely residual noise signals that should decrease as NISAR collects more data. The structure near the center of the image is the Benito Juarez International Airport, with Lake Nabor Carrillo visible as a dark green oblong to the northeast.
A landmark in the area – the Angel of Independence along Paseo de la Reforma – is a visible indicator of subsidence. Built in 1910 to commemorate 100 years of Mexican independence, the imposing monument is 36 meters high and 14 steps were added to its base as the land around it gradually sank.
“Mexico City is a well-known hotspot for subsidence, and images like this are just the beginning for NISAR,” said David Bekaert, project manager at the Flemish Institute for Technological Research and member of the NISAR scientific team. “We will see an influx of new discoveries from around the world, given NISAR’s unique detection capabilities and consistent global coverage.”
A joint mission developed by NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), NISAR was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on the southeastern coast of India. Managed by Caltech, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California is leading the U.S. component of the project and provided the satellite’s L-band SAR and antenna reflector. The spacecraft’s bus and its S-band SAR were provided by ISRO.
The NISAR satellite is the first to carry two SAR instruments at different wavelengths and monitors Earth’s land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days, collecting data using the spacecraft’s giant drum-shaped reflector, which is 39 feet (12 meters) wide – the largest radar antenna reflector NASA has ever sent into space.
To learn more about NISAR, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/nisar/
Media contacts
Andrew Wang / Andrew Bon
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
626-379-6874 / 818-393-2433
andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov
Written by Sally Younger
2026-027
