Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has launched beta version of its most awaited web-based 3D satellite imaginary application named Bhuvan on 12 August 2009. Bhuvan is a satellite mapping tool similar to Google Earth and WikiMapia. Bhuvan will show images upto 10 metres distance which means you can easily see details upto a  three floor high building. Its competitor Google Earth shows details upto 200 metres distance while Wikimapia shows details upto 50 metres distance.

Following are the various features of ISRO Bhuvan:

  • Access, explore and visualise 2D and 3D image data along with rich thematic information on Soil, wasteland, water resources etc.
  • Visualise multi-resolution, multi-sensor, multi-temporal image data
  • Superpose administrative boundaries of choice on images as required
  • Visualisation of AWS ( Automatic Weather Stations) data/information in a graphic view and use tabular weather data of user choice
  • Fly to locations ( Flies from the current location directly to the selected location)
  • Heads-Up Display ( HUD) naviation controls ( Tilt slider, north indicator, opacity, compass ring, zoom slider)
  • Navigation using the 3D view Pop-up menu (Fly-in, Fly out, jump in, jump around, view point)
  • 3D Fly through (3D view to fly to locations, objects in the terrain, and navigate freely using the mouse or keyboard)
  • Drawing 2D objects (Text labels, polylines, polygons, rectangles, 2D arrows, circles, ellipse)
  • Drawing 3D Objects (placing of expressive 3D models, 3D polygons, boxes)
  • Snapshot creation (copies the 3D view to a floating window and allows to save to a external file)
  • Measurement tools (Horizontal distance, aerial distance, vertical distance, measure area)
  • Shadow Analysis (it sets the sun position based on the given time creating shadows and effects the lighting on the terrain)
  • Urban Design Tools (to build roads, junctions and traffic lights in an urban setting)
  • Contour map ( Displays a colorized terrain map and contour lines)
  • Draw tools (Creates simples markers, free hand lines, urban designs)

Following are the Minimum System Requirements to access Bhuvan:

  • Operating System: Windows XP/Vista; RAM: 512MB; Hard Disk: 2GB free space; Network Speed: 256 Kbits/sec; Graphics Card: 3D-capable with 32MB of VRAM; Screen: 1280x1024, 32-bit True Color;
  • To browse Bhuvan, you require the Bhuvan Plug-in which can be downloaded from ISRO Bhuvan website after registration, and you will also need DirectX 9.0 or higher version and MS .NET framework 2.0 or above for installing the plug-in. Please note that the Bhuvan Plug-in can be installed with administrative privileges only.