ISRO launches Indian version of Google Earth

Mumbai, Aug 13: The Indian Space Research organisation (ISRO) launched a mapping application website like Google Earth called 'Bhuvan' on Wednesday, Aug 12. This application provides pictures of the Indian terrain barring sensitive locations and weather information.

Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) director V Jayaraman told to media that in Nov 2008 he picked young scientists from ISRO to work on the project. He said, "They were extremely enthusiastic and right from the word go our focus was that it should be useful to users in India."

Watch Video:

NRSA, a part of ISRO developed the tool using data provided by Indian satellites like Resourcesat-1. 'Bhuvan', which in Sanskrit means the earth, focus on rural and thematic applications like wasteland mapping and terrain profile. It also contains weather details like humidity levels.

ISRO chief spokesperson S Satish said, "Compared to Google Earth, 'Bhuvan' is more 'versatile' and provides data about different Indian cities. It's more viewer-friendly."

ISRO officials said, when compared with Google Earth, Bhuvan provides multi layer information and upgrades images every year. It has option of viewing on different dates also. Apart from all these Bhuvan uses Indian satellites, while Google Earth uses international satellites

Although ISRO lauds Bhuvan so much, the main page of ISRO doesn't even mention about Bhuvan and not even the press release page speaks about it.

OneIndia News