A mosaic made by satellite images (Landsat1, 2 and 3) has just been concluded by Panamazônia II, a project developed by Remote Sensing Division of National Institute for Space Research. The mosaic creation also proves that the open pasture was in good conditions until the beginning of the eighties decade.
It is important to remind that Brazil has one of the most antiques image satellite acquisition of the world, as it has been receiving Landsat data since 1973 through INPE’s station located in Cuiabá. The Landsat launched in 1972 was the first remote sensing of terrestrial resources orbital equipment so that, Brazil was the third country to receive this kind of images, after the United States and Canada only. INPE’s Data Center of Remote Sensing, in Cachoeira Paulista, is in charge of those images.
Metodology
Mato Grosso mosaic was created with the Multiespectral sensor of Landsat satellite images MSS, that records targets bigger than 80 meters. The RGB images are compounded by 574 bands that correspond to the red spectral intervals, infrareds and green’s. The geometrical correction was elaborated getting as a support the ortho-rectifyed Geocover mosaics which were given by NASA, that permit taking inner measures and of absolute localization at the pixel’s dimension level.Thus, it is possible to measure with much greater accuracy the deforestation spots in the forest and also those that are just beginning in the open pasture.
The Panamazônia II – currently studies the Forest and Open Pasture biomes in Mato Grosso with Landsat images of 1990, 2000, and 2005 years with updates for 2008 with the CBERS – China Brazil Earth Resources Satellite support.
For more information please visit www.dgi.inpe.br/CDSR
Source: INPE