Meeting in Gabon Discusses Spatial Data Access

Hello reader!

It follows one communicates published on the day (11/04) in the website of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) noting that meeting in Gabon discusses spatial data access.

Duda Falcão

Meeting in Gabon Discusses

Spatial Data Access

Friday, November 04, 2011

The Director of the National Institute for Space Research (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais – INPE), Gilberto Câmara, will meet with leaders of the new Gabon Space Agency on Nov. 4 and 5, in Libreville, to discuss the infrastructure that will enable African countries to receive satellite images for free. It’s also planned a meeting with Gabon President, Ali Bongo.

The Manager of the Ground Systems Program, José Teixeira da Matta Bacellar, and the Head of the Amazon Regional Center of INPE, Cláudio Almeida will also attend the meetings. Besides images, INPE provides to African countries all its technology for data processing and its experience acquired over 20 years of Amazon monitoring.

INPE’s initiative of installing receiving stations for satellites data in Africa (CBERS-3/4 and Amazônia-1) and, more importantly, through a policy of free data distribution, will ensure developing countries free access to technology essential to the forest and natural disasters monitoring. The spatial information is also useful to the agricultural areas mapping and to assess growth of urban areas, among other applications.

The CBERS-3 will be launched in the second half of 2012, and Amazônia-1 and CBERS-4 are planned for 2013 and 2014, respectively. In addition to Gabon, stations for reception of satellite data are being installed in Egypt and Kenya, to complement the already installed stations in Canary Islands and South Africa.

“We are sure that the open distribution of data has much more impact and brings more benefits for Africa than the use of satellites made under a policy of commercial distribution,” said Gilberto Câmara.

The spatial data democratization is one of the banners raised by Brazil, through INPE, in international forums. From Gabon, the director of INPE goes to Italy to attend the meeting of the CEOS (Committee on Earth Observation Satellites) on Nov. 8 and 9, when they will discuss issues such as training and polices for free access to spatial information.

Source: WebSite of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE)