Thursday, August 13, 2009

ISRO BHUVAN

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Bhuvan is the latest threat to google earth whose beta version will be launched today. The word Bhuvan is a sanskrit word meaning EARTH . It will be a web based tool much similar to Google earth which shows 3D imagary maps . Satellite images of any place around the world can be viewed on this tool. This tool will also be helpfull in measuring distance between two places.






Main Features of BHUVAN are as follows:

  1. Access, explore and visualise 2D and 3D image data along with rich thematic information on Soil, wasteland, water resources etc.
  2. Visualise multi-resolution, multi-sensor, multi-temporal image data.
  3. Superpose administrative boundaries of choice on images as required.
  4. Visualisation of AWS - Automatic Weather Stations data/information in a graphic view and use tabular weather data of user choice.
  5. Fly to locations , it flies from the current location directly to the selected location.
  6. Heads-Up Display ( HUD) naviation controls like Tilt slider, north indicator, opacity, compass ring, zoom slider.
  7. Navigation using the 3D view Pop-up menu like Fly-in, Fly out, jump in, jump around, view point.
  8. 3D view to fly to locations, objects in the terrain, and navigate freely using the mouse or keyboard.
  9. Drawing 2D objects like Text labels, polylines, polygons, rectangles, 2D arrows, circles, ellipse.
  10. Drawing 3D Objects and placing of expressive 3D models, 3D polygons, boxes.
  11. Snapshot creation , it copies the 3D view to a floating window and allows to save to a external file.
  12. Measurement tools which measures Horizontal distance, aerial distance, vertical distance, measure area.
  13. Shadow Analysis , it sets the sun position based on the given time creating shadows and effects the lighting on the terrain.
  14. Particular interest of ISRO/DOS would be to provide such functionalities to common man so that he/she adopts participatory approach with scientists to solve simple problems easily and interactively.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has also successfully operationalised two major satellite systems namely Indian National Satellites (INSAT) for communication services and Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites for management of natural resources; also, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) for launching IRS type of satellites and Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) for launching INSAT type of satellites. The Space Commission formulates the policies and oversees the implementation of the Indian space programme to promote the development and application of space science and technology for the socio-economic benefit of the country. DOS implements these programmes through, mainly Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL), North Eastern-Space Applications Centre (NE-SAC) and Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL).



Watch this space for more updates from Bhuvan.