Free Cbers satellite images

The Brazilian government informs that Egypt will soon start receiving images from the Cbers satellite, which is jointly owned by Brazil and China. A memorandum for expanding the satellite's reception to three stations in Africa was signed, during president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's trip to China.

In addition to the one in Egypt, stations in the Canary Islands and in South Africa will also receive the signal. Images from the Cbers are distributed free of charge, but require a reception system in order to arrive in the countries.

According to the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), China and Brazil's decision of distributing the images to Africa is a recent one, and will enable African governments and organisations to monitor natural disasters, deforestation, threats to agricultural production, and hazards to public health. Brazil and China use the data for environmental monitoring, agricultural development, urban planning and water management.

The images and information are available to all users, however, according to the Inpe, South American countries benefit the most, as they get the data from the Inpe's receiving antennas in the city of Cuiabá, capital of the state of Mato Grosso. Since 2004, over half a million images have been broadcasted from Brazil to 20,000 users. In China, 20,000 images have already been distributed, according to the Inpe.

In Brazil, for example, the images are used by organisations such as the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE), for updating maps in soil systematisation, and by the National Institute for Colonisation and Land Reform (Incra), for processes linked to land reform.

The Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petrobras, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and the Brazilian Environment and Renewable Natural Resource Institute (Ibama) also use images from the Cbers.