Bhuvan the Earth

Bhuvan, India's response to Google Earth, will be launched in March 2009 and will provide high resolution imagery data of the order of 5 metre which would be of great relevance for real-time exercises, including disaster management and military operations.

"The Google Earth is providing high resolution data in the order of less than a metre. But the data is 2-3 years old. It cannot be of much use for any real-time exercise. But Bhuvan will provide the relevant data for any real-time exercise," S K Pathan, Head, Geo Informatics Data Division, ISRO, said.

Bhuvan, to be launched by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), will be a better alternative to Google Earth in terms of quality of data, he said.

"Bhuvan, which means earth, will get the images from the satellites and provide high resolution imagery data of the order of five metre. This can be of use for real-time exercises like disaster management and military operations," he said.

For real-time exercises, the latest data is a guiding force, he said. It can show the topography, altitude, depth and other features of any specific location.

"This information will be required when you are undertaking a massive exercise like flood management or post-cyclone disaster mitigation," he said.

The data could be of use to manage public services, internal security, town planning and infrastructure development activities.