The Indian Space Research Organisation has unveiled the beta version of Bhuvan (meaning Earth in Sanskrit), a web-based globe application that is being described as India’s challenge to Google Earth.
The application can be downloaded here.
Bhuvan is anticipated to be the most comprehensive portal for geographical and thematic images of India. It promises to deliver better 3D satellite imagery of the sub-continent than the US internet giant, as well as a range of India-specific features like weather information, road profiling and states and district administrative boundaries. However, not everyone is impressed.
The National Remote Sensing Agency in Hyderabad has played a lead role in designing and developing Bhuvan over the past 8 months. According to agency director V. Jayaraman, the portal aims to showcase Indian imaging capabilities. Previously, only relevant central government ministries were permitted to view and use India's satellite data.
‘However, ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair and others felt that images that don't come under the sensitive category could be put on a website and used as a societal application,' Jayaraman told the Indian business website, mydigitalfc.com.
The application combines satellite imagery from 7 Indian remote sensing satellites, including Resourcesat-1, Cartosat-1 and Cartosat-2. The degree of resolution is based on points of interest and popularity, but most media reports say the best imagery on the site has 10 metre resolution. Official government sources say most of the Indian terrain is covered up to at least 6 metres resolution, while the lowest resolution is 55 metres from Advanced Wide Field Sensors. Either way, it is a significant improvement on Google Earth. Indian officials say Google's resolution over India is 200 metres and Wikimapia's 50 metres.
In fact, Google imagery varies considerably. It may be poor in rural areas, but over cities, it tends to be quite good. A cursory comparison shows that the Google view of India Gate, for instance, or the centre of Delhi, is considerably better than Bhuvan's. Certainly, reports of 6 or 10 metre resolution are incorrect.
Since it is initially aimed at users on the subcontinent, Bhuvan is designed to be ‘bandwidth-friendly' and can run even on slow internet connections. Users operate the virtual globe in the same way as Google Earth, and can fly from space to street level, grab, spin and zoom down to any place. Bhuvan also features tools for measuring, drawing, saving, printing and visualising thematic information.
The images currently hosted were taken between one and three years ago. ISRO is proposing to update the imagery annually; Google updates its imagery every four years. Jayaraman told Indian reporters that Bhuvan will eventually offer real-time data and higher-resolution images. With the planned launch of Oceansat next month, the director says his agency is ‘planning to put imagery on the portal and other ISRO websites within a few hours of data acquisition.'
However, it is not clear that such moves would be consistent with the country's data policy, particularly given recently tightened national security measures. Questions about the security implications of readily-available high resolution data have been hotly debated in India since it was revealed that the perpetrators of last November's Mumbai attacks used Google Earth to familiarise themsleves with the terrain of the city.
Even prior to the Mumbai attacks, Google and Indian security officials were engaged in a protracted dispute over imagery of sensitive and strategic military locations on Google's maps. Unsurprisingly, Google came under renewed fire from Indian authorities and other groups in the aftermath of Mumbai. One advocate, Amit Karkhanis, sought to ban Google Earth, Wikimapia and other sites, saying they contravened the National Security Act. 'Terrorists are increasingly relying on sophisticated technology and internet services including Google Earth, maps and satellite phones for their horrible plans,' he said.
Now it seems India has come up with its own high resolution virtual globe. But for all the talk about challenging Google, not everyone is impressed. Reuters India found numerous bugs in the application, but says ‘the biggest disappointment' is the imagery itself.
‘While the service promises zoom up to 10 metres from the ground level...we didn't encounter a single image with nearly as much detailing. In fact, comparative results for a marquee location such as New Delhi's Connaught Place, shows why we won't be uninstalling out Google Earth software anytime soon,' said one disgruntled reviewer.
‘The application needs major improvements in terms of usability before it will be of interest to the ordinary user.'
Source: www.asmmag.com
