Agreement Signed for Receipt of CBERS Data in Gabon

Hello reader!

It follows one communicates published on the day (11/09) in the website of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) noting that a agreement was signed for receipt of CBERS data in Gabon.

Duda Falcão

Agreement Signed for Receipt

of CBERS Data in Gabon

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Gabon will receive data from CBERS-3, which will be launched by Brazil and China in 2012, according to agreement between the National Institute for Space Research (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais – INPE), the China Centre for Resources Satellite Data and Application (CRESDA) and the Gabonese Agency for Space Studies and Observations (Agence Gabonaise d' études et d'observations spatiales - AGEOS), signed Tuesday, Nov. 8.

INPE's goal is having stations covering all Africa, allowing the countries to have free access to satellite data. In Gabon, a station in Libreville is already being built. Similarly, stations are being installed in Egypt and Kenya, while in South Africa and in the Canary Islands the infrastructure for receiving CBERS images is already complete.

Due to CBERS, Brazil and China can provide developing countries with benefits of using orbital data. Satellite information is indispensable to the forest monitoring, biodiversity conservation, disaster management and forecasting, mapping of agricultural areas and urban growth, among other applications.

The director of INPE Gilberto Câmara, director of CRESDA Xu Wen, and President of the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) Sandile Malinga, ratified the agreement at the annual meeting of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), performed in Lucca, Italy, Nov. 7-9.

Democratization

Bringing together space agencies and national and international organizations, the CEOS (Committee on Earth Observation Satellites) is responsible for global coordination of civil space programs and for the exchange of Earth observation satellite data.

In international forums such as CEOS, INPE usually presents actions in favor of data sharing for sustainable development, and for training and infrastructure aimed at spatial data democratization.

In 2004, through INPE, Brazil was the world´s first country to adopt a policy of free access, allowing a free online distribution of satellite data from CBERS.

Currently, the easy access to information that contributes to a better understanding of climate change is a global concern, due to the need of providing and sharing information for levels of carbon monitoring, biodiversity loss, deforestation, water resources, ocean temperatures and other critical indicators for planet's health and well-being of humanity.

Left to Right: Xu Wen, Director of China Centre for Resources Satellite Data

and Application (CRESDA), Sandile Malinga, President of the South African

National Space Agency (SANSA), and Gilberto Câmara, Director of INPE

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