NASA Provides Brazil with Satellite Imaging to Aid in Preventing Amazon Rainforest Deforestation

On Wednesday, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson paid a visit to Brazil’s INPE space research facility and suggested expanding satellite collaborations with the US to support monitoring and stop the degradation of the Amazon rainforest. In January, according to Nelson, NASA will have a satellite that can even provide photographs of what’s occurring underneath the forest canopy. The NISAR satellite will be launched with India.

At a press conference held at INPE in Sao Jose dos Campos, he remarked, “It will be able to look through the canopy of the jungle so that we can see if someone has burned the undergrowth and that would ultimately kill the big trees.”

Nelson was given a tour of INPE’s headquarters by Science Minister Luciana Santos, who also discussed Brazil’s space program. Since 1999, the organization has launched many satellites in collaboration with China for environmental and agricultural monitoring.

Brazil uses satellite imaging to keep an eye on the Amazon, but cloud cover often makes it difficult to get accurate and timely photographs.

Former senator from the United States Nelson met with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday in Brasilia. After the meeting, he told reporters, “I thanked the president for his ongoing efforts to save the Amazon rainforest.”

Nelson said that when he was in space 37 years ago, he could see with his own eyes the devastation of the rainforest from his spaceship window by the various hues.

He said in Brasilia that NASA’s satellites would provide the rainforest “extreme ability to understand what is happening” by early next year.

Earlier on Tuesday, Nelson traveled to Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, to see the narrow-body commercial E-Jet assembly line at Embraer. Nelson will visit Argentina and Colombia this week as part of his ongoing South American tour.