MapBiomas is the first platform in Brazil to offer high-resolution mosaics, made possible by an international contract with Norway

April 16, 2021 -The MapBiomas Brasil and MapBiomas Alerta platforms now offer another base map option: recent mosaics of Planet images with a resolution of 3 meters. MapBiomas is the first initiative in Brazil to make this material available to the entire public.

Now, when accessing the MapBiomas map platforms, users can choose as their base map, in addition to Landsat mosaics, Google Street View, among others, the Planet images updated in high resolution. The first base map is made up of images from October 2020. Over the next few weeks, a tool will be implemented to select the month of interest.

The inclusion of the maps was possible thanks to the cooperation agreement between Planet and the Government of Norway, which also involved Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) and Airbus. The international contract, worth around US$43.5 million, aims to provide universal access to high-resolution satellite images to monitor the tropics and contribute to efforts to combat deforestation and promote sustainable development in these regions.

In this first stage, the base maps made available by MapBiomas are mosaics from October 2020. It will soon be possible to see monthly maps updated every 30 days. The integration of Planet images into the platforms originates from the NextGenMap project, a partnership between MapBiomas, Planet, Google and the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation. Started in 2018, researchers from different institutions that are part of the MapBiomas Network joined forces to integrate daily PlanetScope images from Planet's satellite constellation with the Google Earth Engine (GEE) Platform, and to develop artificial intelligence algorithms to extract information from the images.

In 2019, based on the experience of NextGenMap, MapBiomas Alert was developed - a system that allows you to validate, refine and generate customized reports for each deforestation alert detected in Brazil with the help of Planet images and cloud processing in Google Earth Engine.

The inclusion of current, high-resolution base maps expands the possibilities for understanding what is happening in Brazilian territory close to real time.

Access Planet's base maps with 3m resolution

To use Planet's base maps in MapBiomas Brasil and MapBiomas Alerta:

1. access the platforms: MapBiomas Brasil - https://plataforma.brasil.mapbiomas.org/
MapBiomas Alert - https://plataforma.alerta.mapbiomas.org/

2. click on the last item in the tool menu on the right, on the map ("Base Map")

3. select "Mosaic Planet (Oct 2020)"

PRESS
MapBiomas
Liuca Yonaha
imprensa@mapbiomas.org
+55 (11) 94186-4029