Roscosmos to digitize Earth

The Digital Earth project has a broad range of potential applications (RSS / Roscosmos)

The Russian Space Systems (RSS) stand at MAKS features the Digital Earth project by Roscosmos State Corporation. The project aims to create a seamless, periodically updated digital model of the entire Earth’s surface with a resolution of about 1 m based on remote sensing data.

Digital Earth could be used in agriculture, forestry, land inventory, cartography, regional administration, and also for emergency relief. An RSS representative stresses that the project will serve as the basis for a whole family of new geodata services for “federal and regional government agencies, large and medium-sized businesses, and ordinary users.”

The Russian Earth remote sensing constellation comprises eight spacecraft. It supports all types and modes of imaging, including hyperspectral. The satellites carry a broad range of sensors, collecting data of varying resolution in a broad spectral range. Roscosmos is planning to bring the constellation up to 20 satellites by 2025.

To implement the Digital Earth project, RSS has set up a geographically distributed information system. The system consists of 13 centers across Russia. It sets tasks to the Earth remote sensing constellation, collects information, and transmits it to users.

The system has successfully passed official tests and entered service. It includes a master catalog of Earth remote sensing data incorporating all the existing archives of Russian space imagery.

By Tatyana Volodina