On the occasion of the 90^th birth anniversary of Vikram Sarabhai, the father of Indian space programme, on 12 August 2009 Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has launched its own edition of a mapping application, known as Bhuvan, a Sanskrit word meaning Earth, with main involvement of the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA). Bhuvan uses data provided by satellites including Resourcesat-1 to get the best possible imagery for India to offer resolution up to 10 metres and is considered as a rival to Google Earth and Wikimapia. Some basic features of this new satellite mapping tool are access, exploration and visualisation of 2D and 3D image data along with rich thematic information on soil, wasteland, water resources etc.; visualisation of multi-resolution, multi-sensor, multi-temporal image data; superposing of the administrative boundaries of choice on images as required; visualisation of AWS (Automatic Weather Stations) data/information in a graphic view and use tabular weather data of user choice; flying from the current location directly to the selected location; 3D Fly through; Heads-Up Display (HUD) navigation controls (tilt slider, north indicator, opacity, compass ring, zoom slider); navigation using the 3D view Pop-up menu; drawing 2D and 3D objects; Shadow Analysis etc. Particular interest of ISRO / Department of Space would be to provide such functionalities to common man so that he/she adopts participatory approach with scientists to solve simple problems easily and interactively.

Source: Coordinates, September 2009