Satellites used to produce new map of Siberian forests
The SIBERIA project, funded by the European Commission under the Fourth Framework programme has used Earth observation radar satellites to create a new map of the Siberian forest. Working together to produce the map were the ESA (European Space Agency), DLR (German Aerospace Centre) and NASDA (Japanese Space Agency). The project was one of the biggest remote sensing campaigns ever undertaken in Europe, and took three years to complete. The new map was presented at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) in Munich on 26 and 27 October 2000. The map covers 1.2 million sq km and will help the Russian forestry authorities to update obsolete forest inventory data, and to monitor reforestation, for example, after forest fires.