The role of
Thailand Remote Sensing center in
user service to the Southeast Asia region
Praneet Ditsariyakul,
Niramon Limlamai
Remote Sensing Division,
National Research Council
Bangkok 10900 , Thailand
Starting from late 1987, the development of remote sensing applications using satellite data has become more successful in this region due to the fact that Thailand Ground Station has the capabilities to provide the high resolution satellite data of Landsat TM, SPOT and MOS-1 added to the existing MSS. At present, Thailand Remote Sensing Center (TRSC) has a large archive of satellite data which could serve the users' needs of the region. TRSC has progressed through the years to be a center of excellence in this region. TRSC now tries to take a greater role in providing the enhanced quality and quantity of data to users. However, the price of data is still one of the major problems even though TRSC product price is not too high compared to the world standard. It is anticipated that if data cost is reasonable, the use of satellite data will be more side spread and will generate interest among the users in the Southeast Asian region.
Introduction
Thailand Remote Sensing Center (TRSC) under the National Research Council of Thailand , has operated as a land remote sensing data collection center since late 1981. The coverage area of the Thai station (see Figure 1) extends to many countries in Southeast Asia including the Southern part of the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Burma. In 1986, Thailand Ground Station with CIDA grant , was upgraded to receive and process the high resolution satellite data from Thematic Mapper of Landsat-5 and HRV of SPOT-1 and started to receive those data from December 1987. TRSC also coop0erated with Japan's NASDA to construct a new ground station for MOS-1 which stated to receive MOS-1 data from May 1988.
In addition to the ground reception facilities, TRSC is equipped with photographic laboratory for data reproduction and analysis systems for data application. The capability of receiving, processing and providing, the multiple satellite data has placed TRSC in a prominent position with the great role in user service to the Southeast Asia region.
Satellite data and service avalibale
At present, Thailand Remote Sensing Center has extensive archives of Landsat MSS and TM of more than 130,000 scenes and more than 7, 000 scenes foe SPOT data.
The User Service Unit of TRSC, which is responsible for providing users with satellite data acquired by the Thai station, offers various forms and scales of photographic and digital products including some special services.
Some examples of services provided are :
- Scene search information : Users who are interested in data for a particular area can contact User Service Unit for assistance. The listing of available scenes can be compiled and provided free of charge. To request for a search, the users should provide path / Row number for Laandsat data and K/J number for those of SPOT.
They can also specify the maximum acceptable cloud cover, minimum image quality and the time of year preferred.
- Microfiche subscription : The acquired TM and SPOT images are reproduced on microfiche. The TM microcatalog is called cyclic microfiche. An individual microfiche contains acquired scenes for one geographic area during one cycle ( every 16 days) . The users are also able to use microfiche fro preliminary evalution of image quality and cloud cover. Microfiche subscription is available on an annual basis. When ordering, the users have to indicate the geographic area requi9red. TM cyclic catalog areas are shown in Figure 1.
