ScanEx Acquires Footprint of all Russia from Space

02 July 2007, 1:52pm

29 June 2007 - ScanEx R&D Center has acquired almost the entire coverage with high resolution images of the Russian territory of 17 million square km.

In line with the agreement with French SPOT Image company, two satellites – SPOT-2 and SPOT-4 – have been performing continuous imagery of the entire Russian territory starting March 2006 at the resolution of 10 m in panchromatic mode and 20 m in multispectral mode. The images are acquired by the network of universal ground receiving stations of ScaEx Center in Moscow, Irkutsk and Magadan.

According to the ScanEx’s data processing department, the principal part of Russian territory was covered with clear-day and low-clouds images for the past one and half year period. Thanks to the introduction of the new ground station in Magadan the complete coverage with SPOT images at the 10 m resolution of the Chukotka, Kamchatka, Sakhalin territories and the Far East regions have been acquired for the first time.

The experience shows that the mode of continuous imagery using several satellites is most efficient to get complete and multi-temporal coverage with images of vast territories. The acquired image archive (data is available via the on-line catalog http://catalog.scanex.ru) is the basic data source to resolve a variety of tasks: maps updating, cadastre and arable lands monitoring, forestry and subsoil use monitoring, drug plants growing areas control and emergency areas monitoring.

In 2007, based on the complete coverage of the Russian territory, contracts for Chita-Khabarosk road construction (“Amur” project) activities supervision will be carried out, as well as for highways around St-Petersburg and Sochi traffic center. Illegal logging monitoring and supervision is still another important contractual task to be fulfilled.

Detailed SPOT 2/4 imagery products have been used for the damage assessments of acts of nature. Thus for example, SPOT-2 satellite performed near real-time imagery on June 4 of the disastrous landslide in the Valley of Geysers, Kamchatka that took place the day before. Areas of landslide and the impounded lake, created as a result, are clearly seen on the image.

SPOT satellites have been taking nadir images per ScanEx’s orders thus enabling the reception of ortho-images with slight distortions to create color mosaics for vast areas and big regions. Based on the updated coverage with SPOT 2/4 satellite, a geo-portal with color mosaics of images at 10 m resolution can be developed, covering the entire Russian territory. Similar IRS 5.8 m resolution color mosaics were used to create the footprint of Moscow Region in the New.Kosmosnimki project (http://new.kosmosnimki.ru).

In 2007, ScanEx Center in cooperation with the US Geological Survey (USGS) continues to receive LANDSAT-5 image per the Mid-Decadal Global Land Survey (MDGLS) international project. The TM onboard scanner provides the 30 m resolution imagery with 185 х 185 km scenes (6 spectral bands, including the thermal band). This year it is expected to receive the complete coverage of the entire Russian territory with LANDSAT-3 images for global changes monitoring on the territory of the country.

ScanEx R&D Center receives orders for the creation of regional color mosaics or annual customer services, supplying a preset number of scenes (panchromatic, multi-spectral or combined products) for specific regions within a year.

www.scanex.com

Geo: International