GeoDesign International, based in  Lorena, São Paulo, Brazil,  has signed a distributor contract with Sovinformsputnik, a Moscow, Russia,  based company, to distribute high resolution imagery data from the Russian satellite Resurs-DK1 in Brazil.

The Resurs-DK1 satellite was launched from the Baikonour Cosmodrome base on board of a Soyuz-U rocket at 12:00, Moscow time, on June 15, 2006.  The Resurs-DK1 satellite has been gone a battery of tests and is on imaging operational basis at the moment.

GeoDesign is qualified to receive order for acquisition of new Resurs-DK1 high resolution imagery over the Brazilian territory.

The Resurs-DK1 satellite is capable of acquiring high resolution geospatial imagery in panchromatic and multispectral modes, with spatial resolution of the 1 m in panchromatic and 1.5-2 m in multispectral mode.  Resurs-DK1 carries on board imagery data recorder and it has an advanced communication system that allows for rapid download of imagery data to ground stations in minutes.

The minimum area for the acquisition of new imagery is 10×10 Km.  It is also possible to acquire imagery over linear areas if the width of the corridor is not less than 5 Km.  Resurs-DK1 high resolution imagery products are classified according to their processing level accuracy, which is determined by the reliability of an object in the image to be within the specified accuracy of the actual location of the object on the ground.  There are the following four imagery products based on the processing levels: BASE, GEO, RETIFICADA and ORTO.  Table 2 presents information on these four types of Resurs-DK1 imagery products.

High positional accuracy mapping applications

The prices for newly acquired imagery products range between R$27,00 to R$74,00 per Km2 depending on the type of imagery (panchromatic or multispectral) and processing level.  The prices for archived imagery data vary between R$20,00 to R$63,00 per Km2.  Archived imagery are those that have been acquired 60 days prior to an order.

The Resurs-DK1 satellite also carries on board two scientific instruments.  One is the Italy’s PAMELA (Payload for Antimatter-Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics), and the other is the Russian particle detector.  PAMELA is designed to investigate cosmic rays in the Earth’s orbit, and the Russian particle detector will identify earthquake precursors in Earth’s magnetic field.

The high resolution Resurs-DK1 was developed by TsSKB Progress in the city of Samara in cooperation with NPP OPTEKS, OAO Krasnogorskiy Zavod, NII TP and NTs OMZ.  The high resolution imagery data are distributed worldwide by Sovinformsputnik.

Visit he website of GeoDesign Internacional (www.geodesign.com.br) to obtain additional information about the Resurs-DK1 high resolution satellite, description of the imagery products, pricing and sample imagery.

Contact information:  Dr. Reinaldo Escada Chohfi, Director, GeoDesign Internacional
 Phone/Fax: +55 12 3153-5115
E-mail: imagem.dk1@geodesign.com.br

About GeoDesign

GeoDesign Internacional was established in 1998 as a provider of data, services and consulting in the areas of remote sensing, geographic information systems and compression of image and scanned documents.  The application of these technologies is oriented to the corporative, urban, agribusiness and natural environment sectors. GeoDesign has highly specialized staff, software and hardware to provide solutions to these sectors.  The office of GeoDesign Internacional is located in Lorena, SP.

About Sovinformsputnik

JSC "Sovinformsputnuk" has worked on the remote sensing data market for more than 15 years and has been well known in Russia and abroad.  Traditionally, the company has offered satellite images collected by Russian and international spaceships over any area of the Earth surface. 

Now, Sovinformsputnuk provides a full range of satellite images with spatial resolution from 0.6m to 30m. The company’s main direction is satellite data processing, including large scale mapping and GIS creation based on high resolution space images.

Please visit Sovinformsputnik’s web site: (www.sovinformsputnik.com) to obtain more detailed information about Russian remote sensing data.