DETER Indicates 268 km² of Amazon Deforested Area

Hello reader!

It follows one communicates published in english on the day (30/06) in the website of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) noting that the DETER System indicates 268 km² of Amazon deforested area in May.

Duda Falcão

DETER Indicates 268 km² of

Amazon Deforested Area in May

30/06/2011

An important tool to support Amazon surveillance, DETER - Real Time Deforestation Detection System, of National Institute for Space Research (INPE) - reveals that 268 km ² of Amazon forest have been clearcut or suffered progressive degradation in May 2011. The table below shows deforestation record set in May.

Acre 0.4 km²

Amazonas 29.7 km²

Maranhão 6.5 km²

Mato Grosso 93.7 km²

Pará 65.5 km²

Rondônia 67.9 km²

Tocantins 4.3 km²

On the map below, yellow dots represents the location of an alert issued by DETER. Pink areas demonstrate places that could not be monitored due clouds coverage.

May Alerts Map

Full reports about deforestation in May also in the past months are available on webpage: www.obt.inpe.br/deter

Alert System

Working since 2004, DETER is an Alert System for Support and Control Deforestation. Although data is released monthly or bimonthly, DETER results are sent to IBAMA - responsible to overseeing warning areas - almost daily.

DETER uses data from MODIS Terra satellite sensor, with a 250-meters space resolution, is possible to detect Deforestation Polygons correspondent an area bigger than 25 hectares. Not all deforestation areas largest than 25 hectares are identified by the system due to possible cloud coverage. The smallest sensor resolution used by DETER is compensated by the ability of daily observation, which makes the system a perfect tool to quickly inform deforestation to surveillance authorities.

The numbers demonstrated by DETER are important indicators for Control and Supervision Organizations. However, to compute an annual rate of forest removal by clear-cutting on Amazon, INPE works with PRODES (www.obt.inpe.br/Prodes), that uses high resolution images capable of showing small deforestation points. Due to cloud cover variation between two months, also to satellite resolution, INPE do not recommend to compare data from different months or years obtained by DETER. Every disclosure about DETER system alert, INPE also presents a sample data evaluation report. The reports as well as all data generated by DETER can be found on www.obt.inpe.br/deter

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