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Regional cooperation through space technology: Basis for a South America space agency
~
Pergamon
www.elscvier.com/locatc/actaastro
REGIONAL
Acta Astronautica Vol. 51, No. 1-9, pp. 559-567, 2002 © 2002 International Astronautical Federation. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain P I I : S0094-5765(02)00042-5 0094-5765/02 $- see front matter
COOPERATION THROUGH SPACE TECHNOLOGY: FOR A SOUTH AMERICA SPACE AGENCY.
BASIS
PauloRobertoMartini RemoteSensingTechnologist BrazilianNationalInstituteon SpaceRescarch-INPE.AstronautasAve. #1758. S~o Jos6 dos Campos,SP, Brasil. ZIP 12227-010. Phone5512.345.6470. Fax 5512.322.9325 [email protected]
Abstract. In south America only Brazil and Argentina have steadily growing space programs. The other countries are not creating truly in-doors capabilities that allow the development and launching of native orbital devices. This figure changes when the analysis runs through the use of Space Technology. As users, the South America countries play a very important role in the world scenery. Within the continent there are three operational receiving stations for Earth Observation satellites and many large regional cooperating projects are being developed mostly in the panamaTonla Region. These projects have raised the level of human resources through training and education in excellent centers such as those in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia. The stations, the projects and the training program~ within the Earth Observation branch in South Amvrica open the possibility to integrate the Countries in a regional space agency following the way that ESA was established in the early 70's. This document describes the technological facilities available in the region, the possible integration projects and the regional environmental themes that can mosaic South American countries in a space agency. © 2002 International Astronautical Federation. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
FOREWORDS In South America only Brazil and Argentina have steadily growing space programs but
most of the countries are current users of space technology. South Americans are aily users of meteorology and communication satellites and run at least three receiving stations for Earth Observation orbital devices. Regional integration has been growing through cooperation projects that face the monitoring of natural resources in the Pamnm~nia, a region that includes the tropical rain forest domain in South America. These projects claim for training and education of high-level human resources devoted to process and to analyze orbital data. These purposes are being achieved by means of excellent training centers already installed in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Peru. Within the Earth Observation branch it can be noted that it is w r y possible to integrate south America countries in a Space Agency following the model that was designed for the European Space Agency in the late sixties and early seventies. SPACE SYSTEMS AVAILABLE FOR SOUTH AMERICA: REMOTE SENSING LANDSAT 7 was launched in April, 15th, 1999 and the first image over South America was recorded in July by Cuiaba and Cordoba receiving stations. The advent of LANDSAT 7 records followed a time-series of 26 years of LANDSAT in South America. First images were collected in May'73 by the Cuiabs Receiving Station. LANDSAT keep on being the main source of data to monitor the Amazon Forest both
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for Brazil and for the Panamazonia countries. ETM+ images are dally collected in South America. ERS (1 and 2) images were acquired from 1992 until the failure of ERS-2 in January of 2001. The records were made in seasonal basis upon ESA request. All the SAR images collected in C band were archived in the stations and are useful data to study land-use changes in the tropical region. New improvements like interferometryt° are helping to analyze and to evaluate natural hazards in the Andean region. Through the years non-systematic but seasonal complete coverage of South America have been recorded by means of ERS satellites. RADARSAT and IRS data are being collected as well as IKONOS high resolution images but not on routinely basis. SPACE SYSTEMS AVAILABLE FOR SOUTH AMERICA: DATA COLLECTING. Indigenous dam collecting satellites (SCD's) operating above South America are those developed by the Brazilian Complete Space Mission-MEC B. The SCD's are 60 pounds satellites that evolves in a 25 degrees inclined orbit at 750 kilometers altitude. These satellites carry transponders that relay to central stations different kinds of environmont_al data recorded by remote dam collecting platforms (DCP's) on the ground. Vetorial or numeric measurements can be collected such as temperature, wind velocity, moisture, rainfall, albedo and so on. Some more advanced DCP's can measure more than 30 different parameters. The SCD's satellites were launched in February "93 and December "98 making available 300 channels of telemetry.
One important task for the SCD's is to monitor the basin of the Amazon River within the tropical rain forest. To follow this purpose dozens of platforms have been installed in the amazonia of Brazil, Bolivia and Peru but more need to be set in Ecuador and Colombia. The huge Araguaia-Tocantins basin in Brazil is widely monitored through DCP's. The measurements collected by the SCD's allow to regulate the water flow into the Tucurui Electric Plant. This procedure helps to maintain the generation of energy at appropriated levels both in dry and wet seasons.
One key feature of the SCD's is the bit rate. The rate is below one megabit/second which allows a faster dissemination by INTERNET. CHINA-BRAZIL EARTH RESOURCES SATELLITES: CBERS The CBERS Satellite is the first platform developed within the wide technological China-Brazil agreement that faces the launching of more three satellites in the coming ten years. The instruments aboard the first two CBERS satellites are the CCD Camera, the Wide Field Imager-WH and the Infixed Multispe~hal Scanner-IRMSS. The CCD is a charge coupled device instrument with 20 meters ground resolution and 5 spectral bands ranging from blue to near infrared. The WFI is again an array detector device with 250 meters ground resolution and 2 bands centered in the red and the infrared channels. The IRMSS is a traditional scanner with 80 meters resolution in the PAN and the SWIR bands and 160 meters in the thermal band The polar orbiting platform supports two channels to transfer
52nd IAF Congress
data at 53 megabits/second. This configuration allows CBERS to transfer the data simultaneously to Brazil and to other receiving station that operates in X band. The instruments that are flying in the CBERS Satellite have key-technological features and are very competitive in the acting Remote Sensing scenery today. The CCD Camera for example carries an oscillating mirror (as SPOT) allowing a three day revisiting capability. The wide field imaging capability of the WFI (890 kilometers) can collect visible and infrared data of the same site every four days. One can say that only the EOS-TERRA Platform carries today a larger number of sensing devices with more sophisticated attributes. The launch of CBERS-1 was in the afternoon of October '99 from the Taiyan Launching Base through a Long March Vehicle. Two of the three imaging systems are workln~ nominally in CBERS-1 today. The WFI instrument entered in hold mode in May-2000 due to an electronic failure. WFI was able to collect more than 36 complete covers of Brazil including 70% of South America along a small lifetime of 6 months. The China-Brazil Space Program can be assigned as the more important agreement between emergent countries in the world space scenery today. The CBERS satellites are going to be unique vectors to strength cooperation in South America. RECEIVING STATIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA. The stations are located in Cordoba (Argentina), Cotopaxi (Ecuador) and Cuiaba
(araz ) The Cordoba Ground Station works in the X band (85 megabits/second) and S band (15
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megabits/second). Cordoba can record both LANDSAT 5 and 7 and covers the North of Argentina and Chile as well as the Southern half of Brazil until latitude of 16 degrees. Cordoba was installed in 1997. Cotopaxi is located 60 kilometers south of Quito and records at X and S receiving bands. The station reach an operational phase in 1990 and is run by the Center for Integrated Remote Sensing SurveysCLIRSEN. The range of Cotopaxi includes the Andean Mountain~ beginning in the South of Chile extending to Central America and going to the Western half of Brazilian Amazonia. The station is licensed to record SPOT and IRS data besides LANDSAT. Cuiaba Receiving Station is located at the South America geodesic center and was the first LANDSAT recording facility installed in the Southern Hemisphere back in 1973. Brazilian Station was the third to be operational following Greenbelt and Gatineau of 1972. Cuiaba is able to record LANDSAT 5/7 and CBERS on a routinely basis. This capacity was possible through an agreement between the Brazilian Institute on Space ResearchINPE and the Amazon Surveillance ProjectSIVAM, the heavy technological program run by the Brazilian Air Force to monRor the Ammonia. Brazil decided for a new antenna dedicated to CBERS leaving the available one for LANDSAT, SPOT, RADARSAT and eventually ENVISAT. The range of Cuiaba covers Brazil and 70% of South America approximately. Brazilian Station is capable to receive the data relayed by the Data Collecting Satellites-SCD 1 and 2. These data are transferred in the S band with further telemetric transported in UHF. Cuiaba and the Australia Receiving Station in Alice
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Springs are probably the more complete centers to collect space data in the Southern hemisphere. DISTRIBUTION OF DATA Massive volume of data have been collected by Remote Sensing satellites over South America. Traditional procedures to transfer the images to the users are not compatible to the growing availability of new sensors. New and faster procedures need to be implemented in order to have a timely or real time delivering. As an example: the volume of LANDSAT data recorded by Cuiaba from 1984 and 1999 is 50 terabytes. The same volume of information is collected by TERRA Polar Platform in two weeks. Fast processes to transfer information today are related with fiber optics or diroct-tohome (DTH) satellite broadcasting. DTH linking is made through the small (60 cm) parabolic antennas that operates in Ku band. These antennas are able to transfer 85 megabits/second of data. The same bit rate is used to Wansmit fine resolution images (30 meters-pixel) in seven bands covering area of 184x185 kilometers such as the LANDSAT full frames. Each LANDSAT 5 single band frame takes four seconds to be transported from the satellite to the ground using the X band. The same procedure could be applied to transfer the images to users. Another approach could be the practice of sampling. Quarter LANDSAT sampled images can be organize in archives sizing 25 megabytes where pixel with 8 bits are compressed to 4 bits. These kinds of files are easily transferred through anonymous File Transfer Protocol so the network of fiber optics the very best alternative. In South America and mostly in Brazil a large program to install fiber optics is on the run.
Technical and commercial agreements between Brazilian Telecommunication Agency and international carriers have provided digital connections from Brazil'to all American countries. The networking of fibers in South America is centered in and spread from Brazil. The system is comprised by two ocean cables named UNISUR and America 1. UNISUR is a double cable capable to carry about 560 megabits/seeonds each one. It links Florianopolis in Brazil to Las Toninas in Argentina and Maldonado in Uruguay. A second branch named Sintonia links Brazil to the MERCOSUL as a whole and Chile. America 1 is also a 560 megabits double cable and connects Brazil (Ceara) to USA (Florida) providing internet access to Venezuela and the French Guyana as well. This cable is connected with Columbus H near the Isle of Saint Patrick in the Caribbean. Columbus II follows to Palermo in Italy spreading South America links to Western Europe and Russia. A new link of Columbus II with the Pacific belt of fiber optics near Florida extends the connections of South America to the Middle and the Far East including Australia and the South Pacific. Just in Brazil the America 1 provide high speed connections between every large city around the Atlantic margin from Belem to Porto Alegre. A ground segment with the same capacity links Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Brasilia. According to government officials the network of fiber optics in Brazil is 100.000 kilometers in 2001 and will be 300.000 kilometers by 2005. Standing commercial browsers in Brazil earl easily provide bit rates ranging from 64 to 256 ldlobits/second. Quarter LANDSAT frames with 3 bands (13 megabytes) could be forwarded to local users through these digital highways in 4 minutes or less.
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The option that could use direct-to-home technology to transfer images to the users was early discussed by a specialist 1. This author describes the way to transmit images to users through a direct link and real time assuming that the Ku band can carry 15 megabits/seeond of data and the image contains 5 megabytes of information. Following these parameters the time to receive the scene ranges around 6 minutes. A scene like that could be a 500 by 500 kilometers flame with 200 meters of ground resolution quantified in 8 bits. This kind of scene is planned to be collected by the Remote Sensing Satellite-SSR the next step of the Brazilian Complete Space MissionMEC-B. The Ku bands are available at the telecommunication consortia that attend South America users such as PANAMSAT and INTELSAT. The facilities provided by the technology of information can be one differential to an effective integration of South America in the space arena. THE THEMES OF DIRECT INqT_J~ST TO SOUTH AMERICA COUNTRIES A good strategy to strength technical and scientific cooperation is the one that focus on themes of collective interest between cotmh-ies. Natural forestry and fresh water are generally accepted as the main challenge to planners in terms of sustainability and protection Water and forest have a wide distribution in South America and soon they can be addressed as a global concern and so claiming to be treated as a global treasure. Cooperation projects that face the monitoring and managing of the water and the forestry could help to integrate the countries. Large projects like these can be easier developed by means of Space Technology within the frame of a regional agency. Some figures about the distribution
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of water/forest must be given before entering in the discussion of the cooperative projects. The Amazonia domain in South America comprises more than 7 millions square kilometers and is distributed over 9 countries: Guyana, Stuiname, French Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. Just in Brazil about 5 millions square kilometers are dominated by tropical heavy rain environment. Most of this area are still covered by dense tropical forest but with deforestation figures showing frequently numbers around two millions hectares per year. INPE reported in 1998 that 50 millions hectares of Brazilian Amazonia were deforested. This area means 10",6 of the whole Brazilian Amazonia. Following the trends of "98 it is possible that all the tropical forest of Brazil or 70*,6 of South America forest coverage can be erased by the year of 2250. South America will house the forests of the this young century and maybe still will host them in the 22nd. Even tough the current deforestation rates most of the terrestrial biological diversity will remain within South America borders. It is widely known the economic relevance of the Amazonia biodiversity. Recent figures show that just 10 natural saps from Brazil provide key chemicals to generate 5 billions US dollars of revenues in the international amendment market. The preservation of forestry aged 12,000 years or more can guarantee the continuity of human life on Earth. A regional integrated project to monitor and to preserve the natural forest is a great option and the space technology is coming to be the best alternative. Fresh waters have been studied by several researches in South America. Experienced peoples report that water will be the more
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precious natural resource of the planet in this millennium. The author (op. cit.) using the World Bank figures show that the wars of this century will be for fresh water and the costs to avoid the wars can reach 800 billions US dollars in ten years. The UN reports that in the coming 25 years about 2.8 billions of people will be living in regions submitted to perennial droughts. Fresh surface waters are only 0.63% of the amount of liquid or solid water available in the planet. The amount of surface water available in the continents is about 45,664 km3/year and South America contributes with 10,533 km31year or 20%. Brazilian waters can reach 8,219 km3/year and this means 18% of the world total amount and 78% of the total volume of South America. Global consumption of water can reach today the volume of 6,000 km3/year and the availability of flesh surface water (not groundwater) is roughly 45,664~3/year according to the article mentioned above. Some scientists report that by the year of 2089 the planet could reach a global condition of drought and famine assuming 1.8% as the standing demographic rate. Profitable surface waters like the rivers and the lakes could get exhausted by 2053 according to the standing figures of global consumption for the year of 2000. By that time (2053) the only profitable fresh water to remain could be the water stored in the polar ice fields and in the ground. To monitor the quality and the volume of fresh water is a challenge where space technology can be the key element for regional integration. The role of this technology could follow two main goals: i) to collect space data on a routinely basis and; ii) to nm water managing models supported by geographic information systems-GIS.
A wide project combining studies about the main hydrographic basins of South America could create strong and permanent links of cooperation between the countries. SPACE TECHNOLOGY AS A REGIONAL INTEGRATION TOOL Thinking only in the branch of Earth Observation there are two primary actions that can accelerate the regional integration: interchan£e of satellite dataftmages and
training. The interchange of images is an easy task since South America is almost full covered by the three receiving stations from Bahia Blanca in Argentina to Belize in Central America To deliver packages of images from country to country free of costs is the first step. Some practical situations of data interchangin happened before in the region. The first was in the development of the Panam~onia Project where images from Cuiaba and Cotopaxi were transferred to all amazonian countries. The other situation occurred back in 1998 when a wide forest fire spread in the North of the Brazilian Amazonia and Cuiaba Station was closed to improve new antennas. By special request from Brazil the satellite data was recorded by Cotopaxi and transferred by FTP to INPE headquarters. Restrictions to this procedure could arise from the agreements between the receiving stations and the owners or the shareholders of the satellites. The stations need to pay royalties to distribute Remote Sensing satellite images to the users. To overcome these problems a new regional policy for data distribution need to be agreed where the regional projects must to be supported by images collected by South America stations free of costs.
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The arising of the Brazilian Remote Sensing satellites as the CBERS and the MECB-SSR can really promotes better conditions to transfer images. Open and flank interchanging of images between stations and users can establish the very true basis for a regional space agency in South America. To follow the trails of technical cooperation and regional projects one very important issue is human resources. To qualify people at high technical and scientific levels it is essential to count with centers for training and specialization. South America has three centers dedicated to train, graduate and specialize people in the areas of Space Applications and Earth Resources. The centers are in the University of Lujan in Argentina, in the Agustin Codazzi Research Center in Colombia and in the Institute for Space Research in Brazil. The University of Lujan opened about six years ago a course dedicated to environment studies based on remote sensors with emphasis in satellite images. The course was designed for technical and graduate purposes and dozens of people attend the courses every year. The Agustin Coda~zi Research Center (CIAC) has been training graduated people for the last twenty years in the areas of Remote Sensing. The courses can be just for two weeks or can be extended for two years. Through these longer courses researchers are prepared to develop applications projects in the areas of Hydrology, Forestry, Mineral Resources and Cartography between others. The Brazilian Institute on Space Research (INPE) has been graduating people in Remote Sensing since 1971 when the master degree course was initiated. In 1997 the course was extended to attend scientific
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demands for a doctoral Remote Sensing program in Brazil. Doctorate course in Remote Sensing in South America is only available at INPE. Other course is dedicated to specialized people in Remote Sensing applications to environment and natural resources with the support of UN Office for Outer Space Affairs and the European Space Agency. This course has completed the 10th edition in 2000 and has specialized one hundred people from Latin America and Africa. The sustainable development of human resources is another key element to establish a rvgional space agency in a integrated way. PERMANENT REGIONAL PROJECTS Permanent projects are the third main element to support a regional space agency along with images and human resources These projects mus to be dedicated to the themes of direct interest to South America countries. These themes are forest and water in the way that they were described above. Monitoring and sustainable management of this wealth could be the right stuff of a great nation linked by science and technology. A permanent project dealing with forestry could follow the model designed by the PRODES Project, the systematic procedure to evaluate the deforestation rates in the Amazonia developed by Brazil from year to year since 1975 I1. The costs to extend the PRODES project to monitor the tropical forest in the Panamazonia could reach 8 millions of US dollars by conventional ways but through regional cooperation the final figure could reach less than 10% of that value 9. A project to follow the management of water resources in South America was not yet evaluated in costs but just in technical
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procedures. The specialists must be hydrologists, geographers, cartographers, geologists and geographic information system-GIS experts with a grown experience in Remote Sensing. The images would be collected by friendly satellites (LANDSAT and CBERS) and ancillary data would come from SCD and Global Positioning-GPS systems. Such a project would be dedicated to the more important hydrographic basins of South America which are the Amazon, the Parana, the Sao Francisco and the Orinoco basins.
images and ancillary data dedicated to study and to monitor natural resources. 5. The continuity of global image collecting systems like the LANDSAT family that confi'nues to give very important contributions to monitor the Brazilian and the South America tropical forest. 6. The coming up of new imaging systems like CBERS and the MEC-B Remote Sensing satellites with specific dedication to environment issues having South America as the focal area.
FINAL R E M A R K S Just within the Earth Observation branch really exist strong reasons to establish a regional space agency in South America even tough that other good reasons can be found in the meteorological, telecommunication and engineering segments. The main arguments explored in this document can be used to subsidize advanced discussions. The main arguments can be summarized as follow: 1. The presence of 1/3 of the remaining forest of the planet demanding systematic monitoring with space devices; 2. The presence of 1/5 of the profitable water resources of the planet that demand quantitative management where space and associated technologies as GIS must play a key role, 3. The presence of three operational receiving stations for imaging satellites which are essential to collect and archive data dedicated to Earth resources mainly water and vegetation. 4. The existence of fiber optic and telecommunication network that allow an easy and even real time dissemination of
7. The excellency of the training and graduate centers for Remote Sensing that can educate scientists and researchers at different levels from specialization to doctorate. Many other reasons can arise but two important issues must be addressed as final remarks. One is about the model to follow and the other is the suggested role for the Brazilian Space Agency-AEB. The model would be the one designed for the European Space Agency-ESA_ ESA is truly a regional agency and was grown under direct competition of other national agencies like NASA, C N E S and the former Soviet Union space agency 5. The role of AFa~ could be to dispose and to mobilize at the regional level the huge Brazilian missions and facilities dedicated to space such as Alcantara Launching Center, Cachoeira Paulista Space Center, Space Integration and Testing Lab, Center for Climate and Weather Forecasting and mostly the space devices as the SCD, SSR and CBERS satellites
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 1.Ceballos, D.C. An Equatorial Remote Sensing Satellite Oriented to Tropical Region and Using Direct Downlinking. 46th International Astronautical Congress. Book of Abstracts, pp.20, 1995. Oslo, Norway. 2.CLIRSEN. Estaci6n Terrcna del CotopaxiEoJador. SELPER Magazine-Sociedad de Especialistas Latinoamericanos en Percepci6n Remota vol.6 n.3. September, pp.11-14. 1990.Santiago, Chile. 3.CONAE. Argentina en el Spacio 19952006. Comission Nacional de Actividades Espaciales. Brochure, 20 p. 1994. Buenos Aires, Argentina. 4.EMBRATEL. Nova Era ¢m Telccomunicarc6es no BrasH: 1988-1999. Empresa Brasileira de Teleeomunicac6es. Brochure 22 pp. 1998. Rio de Janeiro.
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7.King, M. Editor's Comer. The Earth Observer vol.11 n.2 pp. 1-3. March-April 1999. NASA Goddard Space Hight Center, Crrcenbclt, MD, USA. 8.Maia Nero, I L F . Agua para o Desenvolvimento Sustent~vel. Agua em Revista ano V n.9, pp.21-32. 1997. Companhia de Pesquisas de Rocursos Minerais, Rio de Janeiro. 9.Martini, P.R. Panamazonia Project to Monitor South America Tropical Forest. Proceedings of the 6th Latin America Remote Sensing Symposium vol. 1 pp.25-29. 1993. Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. 10.Massonet, D., Adragna, F. A Full Validation of Radar Intefferomctry ERS-I: The Landers Earthquake. Observation Quarterly n.41 pp.1-5. 1993. ESA, Frascatti, Italy.
Scale with Earth July,
5.ESRO. Europe in Space: A Survey Prepared by the European Space Research Organization (ESRO), 1974. ESRO Edition, Frascatti, Italy.
11.PRODES. Projeto de Monitoramento do Desflorestamento na Amaz6nia Legal 19971998. Brochure 12 pp. 1998. In,siitato National de Pesquisas Espaciais-Instituto Brasileiro de Meio Ambieme. S ~ Jos6 dos Campos, SP, Brazil.
6.Fea, M.-(Coord.) Cuiaba-The Cen~e of South America. Earth Observation Quarterly n.4, June-supplement, 4 pp. 1994, ESA, Frascatti, Italy.
12.Wilson A. (ed.) Space Directory 19941995. Jane's Data Division. 1996.-Surrey, United Kingdom.
Pergamon
www.elscvier.com/locatc/actaastro
REGIONAL
Acta Astronautica Vol. 51, No. 1-9, pp. 559-567, 2002 © 2002 International Astronautical Federation. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain P I I : S0094-5765(02)00042-5 0094-5765/02 $- see front matter
COOPERATION THROUGH SPACE TECHNOLOGY: FOR A SOUTH AMERICA SPACE AGENCY.
BASIS
PauloRobertoMartini RemoteSensingTechnologist BrazilianNationalInstituteon SpaceRescarch-INPE.AstronautasAve. #1758. S~o Jos6 dos Campos,SP, Brasil. ZIP 12227-010. Phone5512.345.6470. Fax 5512.322.9325 [email protected]
Abstract. In south America only Brazil and Argentina have steadily growing space programs. The other countries are not creating truly in-doors capabilities that allow the development and launching of native orbital devices. This figure changes when the analysis runs through the use of Space Technology. As users, the South America countries play a very important role in the world scenery. Within the continent there are three operational receiving stations for Earth Observation satellites and many large regional cooperating projects are being developed mostly in the panamaTonla Region. These projects have raised the level of human resources through training and education in excellent centers such as those in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia. The stations, the projects and the training program~ within the Earth Observation branch in South Amvrica open the possibility to integrate the Countries in a regional space agency following the way that ESA was established in the early 70's. This document describes the technological facilities available in the region, the possible integration projects and the regional environmental themes that can mosaic South American countries in a space agency. © 2002 International Astronautical Federation. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
FOREWORDS In South America only Brazil and Argentina have steadily growing space programs but
most of the countries are current users of space technology. South Americans are aily users of meteorology and communication satellites and run at least three receiving stations for Earth Observation orbital devices. Regional integration has been growing through cooperation projects that face the monitoring of natural resources in the Pamnm~nia, a region that includes the tropical rain forest domain in South America. These projects claim for training and education of high-level human resources devoted to process and to analyze orbital data. These purposes are being achieved by means of excellent training centers already installed in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Peru. Within the Earth Observation branch it can be noted that it is w r y possible to integrate south America countries in a Space Agency following the model that was designed for the European Space Agency in the late sixties and early seventies. SPACE SYSTEMS AVAILABLE FOR SOUTH AMERICA: REMOTE SENSING LANDSAT 7 was launched in April, 15th, 1999 and the first image over South America was recorded in July by Cuiaba and Cordoba receiving stations. The advent of LANDSAT 7 records followed a time-series of 26 years of LANDSAT in South America. First images were collected in May'73 by the Cuiabs Receiving Station. LANDSAT keep on being the main source of data to monitor the Amazon Forest both
560
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for Brazil and for the Panamazonia countries. ETM+ images are dally collected in South America. ERS (1 and 2) images were acquired from 1992 until the failure of ERS-2 in January of 2001. The records were made in seasonal basis upon ESA request. All the SAR images collected in C band were archived in the stations and are useful data to study land-use changes in the tropical region. New improvements like interferometryt° are helping to analyze and to evaluate natural hazards in the Andean region. Through the years non-systematic but seasonal complete coverage of South America have been recorded by means of ERS satellites. RADARSAT and IRS data are being collected as well as IKONOS high resolution images but not on routinely basis. SPACE SYSTEMS AVAILABLE FOR SOUTH AMERICA: DATA COLLECTING. Indigenous dam collecting satellites (SCD's) operating above South America are those developed by the Brazilian Complete Space Mission-MEC B. The SCD's are 60 pounds satellites that evolves in a 25 degrees inclined orbit at 750 kilometers altitude. These satellites carry transponders that relay to central stations different kinds of environmont_al data recorded by remote dam collecting platforms (DCP's) on the ground. Vetorial or numeric measurements can be collected such as temperature, wind velocity, moisture, rainfall, albedo and so on. Some more advanced DCP's can measure more than 30 different parameters. The SCD's satellites were launched in February "93 and December "98 making available 300 channels of telemetry.
One important task for the SCD's is to monitor the basin of the Amazon River within the tropical rain forest. To follow this purpose dozens of platforms have been installed in the amazonia of Brazil, Bolivia and Peru but more need to be set in Ecuador and Colombia. The huge Araguaia-Tocantins basin in Brazil is widely monitored through DCP's. The measurements collected by the SCD's allow to regulate the water flow into the Tucurui Electric Plant. This procedure helps to maintain the generation of energy at appropriated levels both in dry and wet seasons.
One key feature of the SCD's is the bit rate. The rate is below one megabit/second which allows a faster dissemination by INTERNET. CHINA-BRAZIL EARTH RESOURCES SATELLITES: CBERS The CBERS Satellite is the first platform developed within the wide technological China-Brazil agreement that faces the launching of more three satellites in the coming ten years. The instruments aboard the first two CBERS satellites are the CCD Camera, the Wide Field Imager-WH and the Infixed Multispe~hal Scanner-IRMSS. The CCD is a charge coupled device instrument with 20 meters ground resolution and 5 spectral bands ranging from blue to near infrared. The WFI is again an array detector device with 250 meters ground resolution and 2 bands centered in the red and the infrared channels. The IRMSS is a traditional scanner with 80 meters resolution in the PAN and the SWIR bands and 160 meters in the thermal band The polar orbiting platform supports two channels to transfer
52nd IAF Congress
data at 53 megabits/second. This configuration allows CBERS to transfer the data simultaneously to Brazil and to other receiving station that operates in X band. The instruments that are flying in the CBERS Satellite have key-technological features and are very competitive in the acting Remote Sensing scenery today. The CCD Camera for example carries an oscillating mirror (as SPOT) allowing a three day revisiting capability. The wide field imaging capability of the WFI (890 kilometers) can collect visible and infrared data of the same site every four days. One can say that only the EOS-TERRA Platform carries today a larger number of sensing devices with more sophisticated attributes. The launch of CBERS-1 was in the afternoon of October '99 from the Taiyan Launching Base through a Long March Vehicle. Two of the three imaging systems are workln~ nominally in CBERS-1 today. The WFI instrument entered in hold mode in May-2000 due to an electronic failure. WFI was able to collect more than 36 complete covers of Brazil including 70% of South America along a small lifetime of 6 months. The China-Brazil Space Program can be assigned as the more important agreement between emergent countries in the world space scenery today. The CBERS satellites are going to be unique vectors to strength cooperation in South America. RECEIVING STATIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA. The stations are located in Cordoba (Argentina), Cotopaxi (Ecuador) and Cuiaba
(araz ) The Cordoba Ground Station works in the X band (85 megabits/second) and S band (15
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megabits/second). Cordoba can record both LANDSAT 5 and 7 and covers the North of Argentina and Chile as well as the Southern half of Brazil until latitude of 16 degrees. Cordoba was installed in 1997. Cotopaxi is located 60 kilometers south of Quito and records at X and S receiving bands. The station reach an operational phase in 1990 and is run by the Center for Integrated Remote Sensing SurveysCLIRSEN. The range of Cotopaxi includes the Andean Mountain~ beginning in the South of Chile extending to Central America and going to the Western half of Brazilian Amazonia. The station is licensed to record SPOT and IRS data besides LANDSAT. Cuiaba Receiving Station is located at the South America geodesic center and was the first LANDSAT recording facility installed in the Southern Hemisphere back in 1973. Brazilian Station was the third to be operational following Greenbelt and Gatineau of 1972. Cuiaba is able to record LANDSAT 5/7 and CBERS on a routinely basis. This capacity was possible through an agreement between the Brazilian Institute on Space ResearchINPE and the Amazon Surveillance ProjectSIVAM, the heavy technological program run by the Brazilian Air Force to monRor the Ammonia. Brazil decided for a new antenna dedicated to CBERS leaving the available one for LANDSAT, SPOT, RADARSAT and eventually ENVISAT. The range of Cuiaba covers Brazil and 70% of South America approximately. Brazilian Station is capable to receive the data relayed by the Data Collecting Satellites-SCD 1 and 2. These data are transferred in the S band with further telemetric transported in UHF. Cuiaba and the Australia Receiving Station in Alice
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Springs are probably the more complete centers to collect space data in the Southern hemisphere. DISTRIBUTION OF DATA Massive volume of data have been collected by Remote Sensing satellites over South America. Traditional procedures to transfer the images to the users are not compatible to the growing availability of new sensors. New and faster procedures need to be implemented in order to have a timely or real time delivering. As an example: the volume of LANDSAT data recorded by Cuiaba from 1984 and 1999 is 50 terabytes. The same volume of information is collected by TERRA Polar Platform in two weeks. Fast processes to transfer information today are related with fiber optics or diroct-tohome (DTH) satellite broadcasting. DTH linking is made through the small (60 cm) parabolic antennas that operates in Ku band. These antennas are able to transfer 85 megabits/second of data. The same bit rate is used to Wansmit fine resolution images (30 meters-pixel) in seven bands covering area of 184x185 kilometers such as the LANDSAT full frames. Each LANDSAT 5 single band frame takes four seconds to be transported from the satellite to the ground using the X band. The same procedure could be applied to transfer the images to users. Another approach could be the practice of sampling. Quarter LANDSAT sampled images can be organize in archives sizing 25 megabytes where pixel with 8 bits are compressed to 4 bits. These kinds of files are easily transferred through anonymous File Transfer Protocol so the network of fiber optics the very best alternative. In South America and mostly in Brazil a large program to install fiber optics is on the run.
Technical and commercial agreements between Brazilian Telecommunication Agency and international carriers have provided digital connections from Brazil'to all American countries. The networking of fibers in South America is centered in and spread from Brazil. The system is comprised by two ocean cables named UNISUR and America 1. UNISUR is a double cable capable to carry about 560 megabits/seeonds each one. It links Florianopolis in Brazil to Las Toninas in Argentina and Maldonado in Uruguay. A second branch named Sintonia links Brazil to the MERCOSUL as a whole and Chile. America 1 is also a 560 megabits double cable and connects Brazil (Ceara) to USA (Florida) providing internet access to Venezuela and the French Guyana as well. This cable is connected with Columbus H near the Isle of Saint Patrick in the Caribbean. Columbus II follows to Palermo in Italy spreading South America links to Western Europe and Russia. A new link of Columbus II with the Pacific belt of fiber optics near Florida extends the connections of South America to the Middle and the Far East including Australia and the South Pacific. Just in Brazil the America 1 provide high speed connections between every large city around the Atlantic margin from Belem to Porto Alegre. A ground segment with the same capacity links Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Brasilia. According to government officials the network of fiber optics in Brazil is 100.000 kilometers in 2001 and will be 300.000 kilometers by 2005. Standing commercial browsers in Brazil earl easily provide bit rates ranging from 64 to 256 ldlobits/second. Quarter LANDSAT frames with 3 bands (13 megabytes) could be forwarded to local users through these digital highways in 4 minutes or less.
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The option that could use direct-to-home technology to transfer images to the users was early discussed by a specialist 1. This author describes the way to transmit images to users through a direct link and real time assuming that the Ku band can carry 15 megabits/seeond of data and the image contains 5 megabytes of information. Following these parameters the time to receive the scene ranges around 6 minutes. A scene like that could be a 500 by 500 kilometers flame with 200 meters of ground resolution quantified in 8 bits. This kind of scene is planned to be collected by the Remote Sensing Satellite-SSR the next step of the Brazilian Complete Space MissionMEC-B. The Ku bands are available at the telecommunication consortia that attend South America users such as PANAMSAT and INTELSAT. The facilities provided by the technology of information can be one differential to an effective integration of South America in the space arena. THE THEMES OF DIRECT INqT_J~ST TO SOUTH AMERICA COUNTRIES A good strategy to strength technical and scientific cooperation is the one that focus on themes of collective interest between cotmh-ies. Natural forestry and fresh water are generally accepted as the main challenge to planners in terms of sustainability and protection Water and forest have a wide distribution in South America and soon they can be addressed as a global concern and so claiming to be treated as a global treasure. Cooperation projects that face the monitoring and managing of the water and the forestry could help to integrate the countries. Large projects like these can be easier developed by means of Space Technology within the frame of a regional agency. Some figures about the distribution
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of water/forest must be given before entering in the discussion of the cooperative projects. The Amazonia domain in South America comprises more than 7 millions square kilometers and is distributed over 9 countries: Guyana, Stuiname, French Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. Just in Brazil about 5 millions square kilometers are dominated by tropical heavy rain environment. Most of this area are still covered by dense tropical forest but with deforestation figures showing frequently numbers around two millions hectares per year. INPE reported in 1998 that 50 millions hectares of Brazilian Amazonia were deforested. This area means 10",6 of the whole Brazilian Amazonia. Following the trends of "98 it is possible that all the tropical forest of Brazil or 70*,6 of South America forest coverage can be erased by the year of 2250. South America will house the forests of the this young century and maybe still will host them in the 22nd. Even tough the current deforestation rates most of the terrestrial biological diversity will remain within South America borders. It is widely known the economic relevance of the Amazonia biodiversity. Recent figures show that just 10 natural saps from Brazil provide key chemicals to generate 5 billions US dollars of revenues in the international amendment market. The preservation of forestry aged 12,000 years or more can guarantee the continuity of human life on Earth. A regional integrated project to monitor and to preserve the natural forest is a great option and the space technology is coming to be the best alternative. Fresh waters have been studied by several researches in South America. Experienced peoples report that water will be the more
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precious natural resource of the planet in this millennium. The author (op. cit.) using the World Bank figures show that the wars of this century will be for fresh water and the costs to avoid the wars can reach 800 billions US dollars in ten years. The UN reports that in the coming 25 years about 2.8 billions of people will be living in regions submitted to perennial droughts. Fresh surface waters are only 0.63% of the amount of liquid or solid water available in the planet. The amount of surface water available in the continents is about 45,664 km3/year and South America contributes with 10,533 km31year or 20%. Brazilian waters can reach 8,219 km3/year and this means 18% of the world total amount and 78% of the total volume of South America. Global consumption of water can reach today the volume of 6,000 km3/year and the availability of flesh surface water (not groundwater) is roughly 45,664~3/year according to the article mentioned above. Some scientists report that by the year of 2089 the planet could reach a global condition of drought and famine assuming 1.8% as the standing demographic rate. Profitable surface waters like the rivers and the lakes could get exhausted by 2053 according to the standing figures of global consumption for the year of 2000. By that time (2053) the only profitable fresh water to remain could be the water stored in the polar ice fields and in the ground. To monitor the quality and the volume of fresh water is a challenge where space technology can be the key element for regional integration. The role of this technology could follow two main goals: i) to collect space data on a routinely basis and; ii) to nm water managing models supported by geographic information systems-GIS.
A wide project combining studies about the main hydrographic basins of South America could create strong and permanent links of cooperation between the countries. SPACE TECHNOLOGY AS A REGIONAL INTEGRATION TOOL Thinking only in the branch of Earth Observation there are two primary actions that can accelerate the regional integration: interchan£e of satellite dataftmages and
training. The interchange of images is an easy task since South America is almost full covered by the three receiving stations from Bahia Blanca in Argentina to Belize in Central America To deliver packages of images from country to country free of costs is the first step. Some practical situations of data interchangin happened before in the region. The first was in the development of the Panam~onia Project where images from Cuiaba and Cotopaxi were transferred to all amazonian countries. The other situation occurred back in 1998 when a wide forest fire spread in the North of the Brazilian Amazonia and Cuiaba Station was closed to improve new antennas. By special request from Brazil the satellite data was recorded by Cotopaxi and transferred by FTP to INPE headquarters. Restrictions to this procedure could arise from the agreements between the receiving stations and the owners or the shareholders of the satellites. The stations need to pay royalties to distribute Remote Sensing satellite images to the users. To overcome these problems a new regional policy for data distribution need to be agreed where the regional projects must to be supported by images collected by South America stations free of costs.
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The arising of the Brazilian Remote Sensing satellites as the CBERS and the MECB-SSR can really promotes better conditions to transfer images. Open and flank interchanging of images between stations and users can establish the very true basis for a regional space agency in South America. To follow the trails of technical cooperation and regional projects one very important issue is human resources. To qualify people at high technical and scientific levels it is essential to count with centers for training and specialization. South America has three centers dedicated to train, graduate and specialize people in the areas of Space Applications and Earth Resources. The centers are in the University of Lujan in Argentina, in the Agustin Codazzi Research Center in Colombia and in the Institute for Space Research in Brazil. The University of Lujan opened about six years ago a course dedicated to environment studies based on remote sensors with emphasis in satellite images. The course was designed for technical and graduate purposes and dozens of people attend the courses every year. The Agustin Coda~zi Research Center (CIAC) has been training graduated people for the last twenty years in the areas of Remote Sensing. The courses can be just for two weeks or can be extended for two years. Through these longer courses researchers are prepared to develop applications projects in the areas of Hydrology, Forestry, Mineral Resources and Cartography between others. The Brazilian Institute on Space Research (INPE) has been graduating people in Remote Sensing since 1971 when the master degree course was initiated. In 1997 the course was extended to attend scientific
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demands for a doctoral Remote Sensing program in Brazil. Doctorate course in Remote Sensing in South America is only available at INPE. Other course is dedicated to specialized people in Remote Sensing applications to environment and natural resources with the support of UN Office for Outer Space Affairs and the European Space Agency. This course has completed the 10th edition in 2000 and has specialized one hundred people from Latin America and Africa. The sustainable development of human resources is another key element to establish a rvgional space agency in a integrated way. PERMANENT REGIONAL PROJECTS Permanent projects are the third main element to support a regional space agency along with images and human resources These projects mus to be dedicated to the themes of direct interest to South America countries. These themes are forest and water in the way that they were described above. Monitoring and sustainable management of this wealth could be the right stuff of a great nation linked by science and technology. A permanent project dealing with forestry could follow the model designed by the PRODES Project, the systematic procedure to evaluate the deforestation rates in the Amazonia developed by Brazil from year to year since 1975 I1. The costs to extend the PRODES project to monitor the tropical forest in the Panamazonia could reach 8 millions of US dollars by conventional ways but through regional cooperation the final figure could reach less than 10% of that value 9. A project to follow the management of water resources in South America was not yet evaluated in costs but just in technical
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procedures. The specialists must be hydrologists, geographers, cartographers, geologists and geographic information system-GIS experts with a grown experience in Remote Sensing. The images would be collected by friendly satellites (LANDSAT and CBERS) and ancillary data would come from SCD and Global Positioning-GPS systems. Such a project would be dedicated to the more important hydrographic basins of South America which are the Amazon, the Parana, the Sao Francisco and the Orinoco basins.
images and ancillary data dedicated to study and to monitor natural resources. 5. The continuity of global image collecting systems like the LANDSAT family that confi'nues to give very important contributions to monitor the Brazilian and the South America tropical forest. 6. The coming up of new imaging systems like CBERS and the MEC-B Remote Sensing satellites with specific dedication to environment issues having South America as the focal area.
FINAL R E M A R K S Just within the Earth Observation branch really exist strong reasons to establish a regional space agency in South America even tough that other good reasons can be found in the meteorological, telecommunication and engineering segments. The main arguments explored in this document can be used to subsidize advanced discussions. The main arguments can be summarized as follow: 1. The presence of 1/3 of the remaining forest of the planet demanding systematic monitoring with space devices; 2. The presence of 1/5 of the profitable water resources of the planet that demand quantitative management where space and associated technologies as GIS must play a key role, 3. The presence of three operational receiving stations for imaging satellites which are essential to collect and archive data dedicated to Earth resources mainly water and vegetation. 4. The existence of fiber optic and telecommunication network that allow an easy and even real time dissemination of
7. The excellency of the training and graduate centers for Remote Sensing that can educate scientists and researchers at different levels from specialization to doctorate. Many other reasons can arise but two important issues must be addressed as final remarks. One is about the model to follow and the other is the suggested role for the Brazilian Space Agency-AEB. The model would be the one designed for the European Space Agency-ESA_ ESA is truly a regional agency and was grown under direct competition of other national agencies like NASA, C N E S and the former Soviet Union space agency 5. The role of AFa~ could be to dispose and to mobilize at the regional level the huge Brazilian missions and facilities dedicated to space such as Alcantara Launching Center, Cachoeira Paulista Space Center, Space Integration and Testing Lab, Center for Climate and Weather Forecasting and mostly the space devices as the SCD, SSR and CBERS satellites
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 1.Ceballos, D.C. An Equatorial Remote Sensing Satellite Oriented to Tropical Region and Using Direct Downlinking. 46th International Astronautical Congress. Book of Abstracts, pp.20, 1995. Oslo, Norway. 2.CLIRSEN. Estaci6n Terrcna del CotopaxiEoJador. SELPER Magazine-Sociedad de Especialistas Latinoamericanos en Percepci6n Remota vol.6 n.3. September, pp.11-14. 1990.Santiago, Chile. 3.CONAE. Argentina en el Spacio 19952006. Comission Nacional de Actividades Espaciales. Brochure, 20 p. 1994. Buenos Aires, Argentina. 4.EMBRATEL. Nova Era ¢m Telccomunicarc6es no BrasH: 1988-1999. Empresa Brasileira de Teleeomunicac6es. Brochure 22 pp. 1998. Rio de Janeiro.
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7.King, M. Editor's Comer. The Earth Observer vol.11 n.2 pp. 1-3. March-April 1999. NASA Goddard Space Hight Center, Crrcenbclt, MD, USA. 8.Maia Nero, I L F . Agua para o Desenvolvimento Sustent~vel. Agua em Revista ano V n.9, pp.21-32. 1997. Companhia de Pesquisas de Rocursos Minerais, Rio de Janeiro. 9.Martini, P.R. Panamazonia Project to Monitor South America Tropical Forest. Proceedings of the 6th Latin America Remote Sensing Symposium vol. 1 pp.25-29. 1993. Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. 10.Massonet, D., Adragna, F. A Full Validation of Radar Intefferomctry ERS-I: The Landers Earthquake. Observation Quarterly n.41 pp.1-5. 1993. ESA, Frascatti, Italy.
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5.ESRO. Europe in Space: A Survey Prepared by the European Space Research Organization (ESRO), 1974. ESRO Edition, Frascatti, Italy.
11.PRODES. Projeto de Monitoramento do Desflorestamento na Amaz6nia Legal 19971998. Brochure 12 pp. 1998. In,siitato National de Pesquisas Espaciais-Instituto Brasileiro de Meio Ambieme. S ~ Jos6 dos Campos, SP, Brazil.
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