Mexico Plans to Utilize Spot Satellites for Agricultural, Fishery Monitoring
By Jeffrey Hill | August 31, 2012
[Satellite TODAY 08-31-12] The Mexican government will begin using satellites to track the country’s agricultural and fishery production on a permanent basis starting in September, the Mexican Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food Ministry announced Aug. 30.
The department said the new system would, “guarantee the availability of satellite imagery until 2023.” Mexico’s Agricultural and Fisheries Information Service SIAP will manage the monitoring project. SIAP said it would receive support from Astrium, which will put the Spot 6 satellite into orbit to process information on climate, soil, seas and crop location.
The Spot 6 satellite is currently situated at Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) facilities awaiting its scheduled launch in September.
Mexico also will have information delivered from the Spot 4 and Spot 5 satellites to its new ERMEXS ground in late September.