Brazilian Amazon land mapping project : status and perspectives

Abstract

The Amazon Radiography Project aims at producing maps in the scale of 1:50,000, in a area of 1,8 million km2 of the Brazilian Amazon using PolInSAR data. The purpose of this paper is to present the actual status of the Amazon Radiography Project and its perspectives. Together, some examples of technical and logistic overcoming will be highlighted. The products that will be made available throughout the project are orthoimages (X-HH and P-HHHV-VH-VV bands), digital surface and terrain models (DSM / DTM), topographic maps, geospatial databases and vegetation stratification. From 2008 until now 72% of the project area has been imaged and 48% of the cartographic products been made. During the project, the adversities encountered generated the need for methodological development such as SAR data processing, new backup politics and polarimetric calibration. Also, the project allowed the technological development of the Brazilian SAR industry with the construction of new sensors.