PEDRO Center – Philippine Earth Data Resource Observation

18 Jul 2018 2:04 PM
By Princess Angela D. Young

 

 

Philippine Earth Data Resource Observation Center (PEDRO) established a Satellite Ground Receiving Station (GRS) facility with direct access to a broad range of optical (high-resolution,multispectral) and radar (cloud penetrating, day-night-imaging) satellite data.

Click here to request images from the PEDRO Center

About PEDRO

The Philippine Earth Data Resource Observation (PEDRO) Center installed the first satellite tracking antenna in the country and established a Ground Receiving Station to access earth-surface information for disaster management, environmental monitoring, national security, urban mapping, rehabilitation assessment, and research purposes.

Since its inception on December 2016, PEDRO Center has stored, archived,  and delivered 1300+ images to various agencies. During the first quarter of 2018 alone, a total of 326 images were distributed. These images were used to cover relevant areas and events like Typhoon Agaton, Mayon Volcano Emissions, Marawi Siege and Rehabilitation, Mt. Pulag Forest Fire, and Kalayaan Group of Islands. The project serves as a platform for different agencies to access relevant earth surface data.

All these efforts are targeted to make scientific and technological advancements in space exploration and in gathering earth surface information.

History

The Department of Science and  Technology - Advanced Science and Technology Institute started developing its Information and Communications Technology for the Space Program as a co-implementing agency of the PHL Microsatellite Program in 2014. On April 26, 2016, the program successfully launched the Philippines' first Microsatellite, DIWATA-1.

With this, DOST-ASTI implemented the PEDRO Center Project to establish a Ground Receiving Station that will complement the operations of DIWATA-1.  The project installed the first satellite tracking antenna in the Philippines. This allowed the  ground receiving facility to directly receive image data and to upload commands like captures and download of images from DIWATA-1.

The PEDRO Center expanded its connection to various satellites for better earth surface data collection. Currently, PEDRO can directly download images from DIWATA-1, KompSat- 3, and KompSat-5. The GRS can also access data from KompSat-3A, KompSat-2, GeoEye-1, WorldView-1, WorldView-3, Worldview-4, Cosmo-Skymed, PlanetScope, RapidEye, and SkySat. Through these satellites, the PEDRO Center gather wide-range of data for different purposes.

Moving forward, PEDRO aims to continuously provide accessible earth surface data and expand its connection to different satellites. By the end of 2018, PEDRO aims to establish a second Ground Receiving Station in Davao City in partnership with the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, Department of Information Communication Technology, and Department of Science and Technology Region XI. The Davao Ground Receiving Station will have a larger moving antenna with 7.3m diameter and will be capable of receiving higher frequency of data.

Satellite Subscriptions

The PEDRO Center is linked to the following satellites

Multispectral Satellites

Scroll to the right to see more columns

Satellite Bands Spatial Resolution Swath Width Multispectral Bands Revisit Time Date Range
DIWATA-1            
KompSat- 3 Pan 0.7m 15km at nadir RGC, NIR 2.7 days 2012
MS 2.8m
PlanetScope (100+ NanoSatellites)  MS 3m n/a RGB, NIR Near daily capture, nationwide 2013
RapidEye MS 5m 77km at nadir RGB, NIR Near daily capture nationwide 2011
GeoEye-1 Pan 0.41m 15.2km at nadir RGB, NIR ≤3 days 2008
MS 1.64m
WorldView-1 Pan 0.5m 17.6km at nadir n/a 1.7 to 5.9 days 2007
WorldView-2 Pan 0.46m 16.4km at nadir RGB, NIR1, Coastal Blue, Yellow, Red Edge, NIR 2 1.1 days 2009
MS 1.8m
WorldView-3 Pan 0.3m 13.1km at nadir RGB, NIR1, Coastal Blue, Yellow, Red Edge, NIR2, SWIR-1 to 8, CAVIS (Desert clouds, Aerosols-1, Green, Aerosols 2, Water-1, Water-2, Water-3, NCVI-SWIR, Cirrus, Snow, Aerosol-3) 1 day 2014
MS 1.24m

 

SAR Satellites

Satellite Bands Polarization Spatial Resolution Swath Width Revisit Time Date Range
KOMPSAT-5 Standard HH,HV,VH, VV 3m 30km 28 days 2013
Wide Swath 20m 100km
High Resolution 1m 5km
Cosmo-Skymed Spotlight HH,HV, VH, VV 1m 10km 12-37 hours 2007
HIMAGE (Stripmap) HH,HV, VH, VV 3-5m 40km
Ping Pong (Stripmap) HH,HV, VH, VV (Dual-pol) 15m 30km
WideRegion (ScanSAR) HH,HV, VH, VV 30m 100km
HugeRegion (ScanSAR) HH,HV, VH, VV 100m 200km

Partners

Partner Agencies and Organizations


Department of Science and Technology(DOST)

Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and
Emerging Technology Research and Development
(DOST- PCIEERD)

Department of Science and Technology - Region XI(DOST- RXI)

Department of Information and Communications Technology(DICT)

Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines(CAAP)

Stakeholders

 

Images from PEDRO Center supported the following agencies

  Philippine Institute of  Volcanology and Seismology
     (PHILVOLCS)

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Philvolcs) as a service institute of the Department of Science and Technology is mandated to mitigate disasters caused by volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunami, and other geotectonic phenomena.

The PEDRO Center supports Philvolcs in mitigating disasters through providing images. During the volcanic emissions of Mount Mayon last January 2018, the PEDRO Center provided images to PhilVolcs to aid in determining the danger zones and for  pre and post disaster assessment. The PEDRO Center also aided PhilVolcs during the Typhoon Vinta, Typhoon Urduja, and Leyte Earthquake.

National Mapping and Resource Information Authority
(NAMRIA)

The National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) provides the public with mapmaking services and is the central mapping agency, depository, and distribution facility for natural resources data in the forms of maps, charts, texts, and statistics.

The PEDRO Center provides images to NAMRIA for land use and land cover classification (particularly in Antique, Davao, Occidental Mindoro, Negros Oriental, Sarangani, and Sorsogon) and coastline mapping (Boac, Marinduque).

National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council
(NDRRMC)

Department of Budget and Management
(DBM)

Sugar Regulatory Administration
(SRA)

 

 

How to Request Images

The PEDRO Center provides images to government agencies or government attached institutions only. To acquire images from the PEDRO Center, kindly email the following details grs@asti.dost.gov.ph

 

  1.  AOI (Areas of Interest) (place names, shapefiles [shp], google Earth [kmz/kml] files)
  2. Satellite data type (Optical or Synthetic Aperture Radar [SAR])
  3. For Optical data, band requirements (Ex. RGB, NIR, SWIR)
  4. For SAR data, polarization requirements (Ex. HH, VV)
  5. Spatial resolution or Ground Sample Distance (GSD)
  6.  Image acquisition dates (Ex. 2016 to 2017 archives, latest available, new tasking at a specified date)
  7.  Intended usage/application (Ex. Post-disaster assessment, agricultural monitoring, land cover mapping)

It should be noted that not all requirements are mandatory. In case only the AOI, acquisition dates, and application are available, the GRS team will be glad to recommend the best suited satellite for the requester's purpose.

Connect With Us


For inquiries, you may contact our team through landline at +63 (2) 426 9764 or through email at grs@asti.dost.gov.ph.