Successful completion of phase II of the InSAR cartography project in Venezuela 

(CartoSUR II)

CartoSUR is a national operational cartography project in Venezuela covering about 1/3 of the country by Radar based maps using a 1:50.000 scale.

Orbisat da Amazônia has successfully completed phase II of the aerial survey of the States of Bolivar and Delta Amacuro in Venezuela, in cooperation with Infoterra GmbH, an EADS/Astrium company in Germany, who is the prime contractor of this World Bank financed project. The 263.000 sq. km. mapping project began in January 2003 and has completed the aerial survey in April 2003 utilizing OrbiSAR-1, the company’s own airborne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar system (InSAR). OrbiSAR-1’s design for simultaneous acquisition of two RADAR bands (X- and P-band) allows for the rapid production of over 500 high quality Ortho-SAR 1:50.000 scale maps together with digital elevation models, contour lines, water bodies, streams, roads and various land cover elements such as forest types, building density, land use, etc.. 

The data is currently being processed with InSAR software developed by Orbisat da Amazônia S/A at the Centro Profesional del Este in Caracas, which is maintained by the Venezuelan counterpart of the project, Grupo Mercator from Caracas. Local Venezuelan SAR and cartographic specialists, trained by Orbisat da Amazônia, are processing the data 24 hours/day in three shifts. Experts from Infoterra GmbH, Germany execute quality assurance and -control of the processing and the products. 

The client for this project, the Geographical Institute of Venezuela Simon Bolívar (I.G.V.S.B.), is beginning the process of archiving the maps in their database.

 

Successful completion of phase I of the InSAR cartography project in Venezuela

 (CartoSUR II)

Orbisat da Amazônia has successfully completed phase I of the aerial survey of the States of Bolivar and Delta Amacuro in Venezuela, in cooperation with Infoterra GmbH, Germany, who is the prime contractor of this World Bank financed project. The 263.000 sq. km. mapping project began in January 2003 and was completed in April 2003 utilizing OrbiSAR-1, the company’s own airborne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar system (InSAR).  OrbiSAR-1’s design for simultaneous acquisition of two RADAR bands (X- and P-band) allows for the rapid production of over 500 high quality Ortho-SAR 1:50.000 scale maps with digital ground and surface elevation models, contour lines, water bodies, streams, roads and various land cover elements such as forest types, building density, land use, etc..

The data is currently being processed at the Centro Profesional del Este in Caracas with InSAR software developed by Orbisat da Amazônia S/A.  Local  Venezuelan cartographic specialists, trained by Orbisat da Amazônia, are processing the data 24 hours/day in three shifts with added support by representatives from Infoterra, GmbH of Germany.

The client for this project, the Geographical Institute of Venezuela Simon Bolívar (IGVSB), will also begin the process of cataloguing the 500-plus maps in their database.

Orbisat da Amazônia S/A. is nearing completion of OrbiSAR-2 for the next national and international mapping projects.  These projects will require higher resolution and height precision than requested for the Venezuelan project.  The updated OrbiSAR-2 system will offer a spatial resolution of up to 50 cm and a vertical accuracy of up to 30 cm in a full operational mapping mode.

This unique Brazilian InSAR mapping system was developed and manufactured in Campinas, Manaus and Sao José dos Campos – Brazil, with kind support by Softex, an international software developer, and the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), a financial institution supporting the financing of the exportation of the products generated by OrbiSAR-1.

 

CartoSUR II

Orbisat da Amazônia S/A - Remote Sensing Division was awarded as the service provider for the second radar mapping project in Venezuela (CartoSUR II), along with the prime contractor Infoterra GmbH, Friedrichshafen, Germany and the Venezuelan counterpart Grupo Mercator from Caracas.

Orbisat-RS, with their new airborne OrbiSAR-1 system, will provide all data acquisition required to produce Ortho SAR Images, digital surface and ground models and biomass distribution maps. The project area, which covers about 263.000 km² in a mostly clouded part of Venezuela, will be mapped within less than 4 months. Orbisat RS, Mercator, and Infoterra will jointly process all the data at the client’s location, using state of the art hardware and software developed by Dr. Joao Moreira and his international team of scientists.

One of the key roles in this project will be the high resolution and high precision polarized P-band sensor, due to its unique ability to penetrate dense tropical forest and determine the full coverage of the digital terrain model data for the entire project area. Additionally, the P-band data will be used to determine the biomass of forested areas.

The images of the X-band sensor, will be used to generate Ortho SAR Images at a scale of 1: 50.000, whereas the elevation data will represent the first ‘visible’ surface heights of the surveyed areas. Value-added data production facilities will be implemented at the client’s location to ensure the further use of the delivered data. The World Bank is funding this US$ 6 millions project.