Google Earth‘s Indian rival is here! Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) took a huge leap into satellite imagery of geographical regions with the launch of `Bhuvan’, India’s mapping application website. Similar to Google Earth or Wikimapia, Bhuvan goes a step ahead. The application allows users to zoom far closer than the aerial view from a chopper.
Here’s is an inside look into Google Earth’s Indian competitor.
Bhuvan is a web-based 3D mapping tool which uses images taken over a year by ISRO’s seven remote sensing satellites, including Cartosat-1 and Cartosat-2.
The application will allow users to have a closer look at any part of the subcontinent barring sensitive locations such as military and nuclear installations. The satellites can capture images of objects as small as a car on a road.
This would provide a user with images having resolution up to 10 m. The degree of resolution showcased is based on points of interest and popularity, but most of the Indian terrain is covered upto at least six meters of resolution with the least spatial resolution being 55 meters.
Like Google Earth, Bhuvan will allow users to view cities and other places of interest looking perpendicularly down or at an oblique angle, with different perspectives.
Features:
– Provides Measurement tools for Horizontal distance, aerial distance and vertical distance
– Provides Shadow Analysis; sets the sun position based on the given time creating shadows and effects the lighting on the terrain
– 2D and 3D image data of Indian Cities, Towns and Villages with information on Soil, wasteland and water resources.
– Bookmark places.
– Population and other factual data about places.
The link to the official website is : http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/
We need to wait and see if it can score higher than Google earth. :)
