Indian Space Research Organisation to use ESRI

11 May 2009, 9:10am

New Delhi, May 11, 2009: The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has reached an agreement with ESRI India to equip it’s five Regional Remote Sensing Service Centres (RRSSC) with ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Server Image Extension operational at Jodhpur, Dehradun, Kharagpur, Nagpur, and Bangalore. RRSSC uses Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite and other imagery in preparing a variety of thematic maps and integrate them in to GIS databases to provide valuable inputs in societal applications to various government agencies throughout India.

With India’s success in remote sensing technology – through the IRS constellation, several new imagery-based and GIS-centric projects of national relevance are gaining visibility and importance. ISRO is presently implementing major programmes related to Natural Resources Census; Natural Resources Data Bases; Disaster Management Support; environmental applications; locale-specific projects of ground-water and water harvesting; watershed management and many others. RRSSCs, over the years, have developed large volumes of map data and integrated them with developmental attribute data. Now, RRSSC plans to integrate and assimilate all of these with the new generation IRS high resolution images and serve these data and application sets across the government sector. RRSSC also expects that the solution scope will scale-up to increased services to a large number of users and for variety of advanced applications. RRSSC is establishing a distributed architecture of a server-based solution that will be the foundation for publishing, hosting and serving these image and map based data and solution. Thus, RRSSC needed a solution that met their needs today and is scalable to meet exponentially growing demands. RRSSC selected ESRI’s proven technology and superior solutions after several rounds of technical presentations, demonstrations, and discussions.

RRSSC and ESRI India have concluded all elements of the contract and the ArcGIS Server with Arc Image Server extensions have been delivered to five RRSSCs. Comprehensive 5-day training has already been imparted by ESRI India and RRSSC users have already started developing the solution.

Dr YVN Krishnamurthy, Director of RRSSC, at the recently concluded Training session mentioned that ISRO users have also been using ESRI products for a variety of applications and many national programmes have been based on GIS solutions. IRS imagery have been the source of thematic mapping inputs and provided end to end solutions under the umbrella of the National Natural Resources Management Systems (NNRMS). ArcGIS Server with the Arc Image Server extension is a robust and integrated product and has the capabilities that can meet the application needs of serving images and thematic maps to wide variety of users across. Our technical team is all geared up to use these capabilities and develop solutions that will be unique and beneficial. We look forward to close support from ESRI in this endeavor”.

ArcGIS Server helps users connect people with the information they need via Web mapping applications and GIS services. It is built on a modern, services-oriented architecture. The ArcGIS Server Image Extension makes it possible to take raw or preprocessed imagery and immediately deliver it as a Web service. It enables organizations to exploit the rich information content available in imagery and quickly access large volumes of imagery. This is far superior to traditional options that required significant efforts by users to locate and make file-based imagery available.

Organizations are moving to newer technology platforms because of their need to leverage imagery throughout their entire enterprise and the new capabilities available for working with imagery. “We provide some really remarkable and powerful new tools that enable things to happen in near-real time¾things like delivering and displaying imagery, roaming around the imagery, zooming into the imagery, and doing on-the-fly mosaicking and on-the-fly orthorectification of the imagery.” says Lawrie Jordan, ESRI’s Director of Imagery Enterprise Solutions. “Customers like this because they are seeing immediate benefits in terms of performance and in terms of the quality of their results.”

Dr Mukund Rao, President and COO of ESRI India said “ESRI values ISRO as a very close partner and has a long relationship over many years that goes beyond products and solutions. ISRO has pioneered the use of IRS imagery with a concerted national and international effort at theme-oriented mapping and has positioned GIS solutions in various disciplines. We are happy to be associated with ISRO on this prestigious national project of managing image and map based solutions in a GIS- architecture that will be unique and first-of-its kind. We are committed to support ISRO on this and other customer needs on similar projects in India”.

ESRI envisages that this new software deployment and implementation will serve as a key reference within all Indian government agencies, especially to those that disseminate and/or consume imagery and imagery related data.

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)

Geo: International