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FIGURE 1FIGURE 2they can choose the best combination ofsensors, satellites, and data policies to fittheir needs. At the same time, more andmore countries are becoming part of theclub of satellite owners.Brazil was one of the first countriesto build and operate a ground stationto receive Landsat-1 data back in 1973.Since then, remote sensing has becomestrong there, counting on the supportof educational programs at various levels,including graduate courses at mastersand doctoral levels. Based on thesefoundations, a number of remote sensingresearch and application programswere developed.As Brazil is large geographically—more than 8.5 million km 2 —and hashigh biodiversity, special ecosystemssuch as the Amazonian and Pantanalregions, an ever-growing agriculture, afast-changing land use and land cover,and a long coastline, it is especiallysuited for space-based remote sensingdevelopments. Thus, it was natural thatBrazil would envisage its own remotesensing satellite development.Coordinator of the CBERS ApplicationProgram, Sr. Researcher at INPE(National Institute for Space Research)São José dos Campos, Brazilwww.cbers.inpe.brAt the end of the 1980’s, Brazil beganthe development of a civilian remotesensing satellite program with China.This cooperation is now 20 years oldand has launched three satellites successfully.It was one of the first programs inthe world involving two countries underdevelopment striving to build andlaunch a satellite – an effort that bringsdifficult technological challenges. To besuccessful, the cooperative effort had toovercome many obstacles. The first onewas the language; since the two countrieshave languages that are very different,a third one had to be chosen to workas a common language. The culturesare very different also, and adaptationsfrom both sides had to be done so thatboth teams could work together. Manyother obstacles had to be overcome asthe project evolved.The initial signed agreement was forthe development and launch of two remotesensing satellites. In October 1999,the first satellite, CBERS-1, was launchedfrom Xi’An (a Chinese launching base),and was carried by Long March-IV launchvehicle. The second CBERS was launchedfour years later, in October 2003. In 2002,IMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM17