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Nelson said NASA will have a satellite in January that can even
render images of what is happening below the forest canopy. The
satellite, called NISAR, will be launched with India.
"It is going to be able to look through the canopy of the jungle
so that we can see if someone has burned the undergrowth and
that would ultimately kill the big trees," he said at a news
conference at INPE in Sao Jose dos Campos.
Science Minister Luciana Santos showed Nelson around INPE
headquarters and explained Brazil's space program. The agency
has launched a series of satellites in partnership with China
since 1999 for agricultural and environmental monitoring.
Brazil relies on satellite imagery to watch over the Amazon, but
cloud cover is often a hurdle for precise and timely images.
Nelson, a former U.S. senator, met on Monday with President Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva in Brasilia.
"I thanked the president for his continuous effort to save the
Amazon rainforest," he told reporters after the meeting.
Nelson said when he flew in space 37 years ago he could see with
the naked eye the destruction of the rainforest by the different
colors visible from his spacecraft window.
Satellites that NASA plans to place in orbit early next year
will add "extreme ability to understand what is happening" to
the rainforest, he said in Brasilia.
Earlier on Tuesday, Nelson visited Brazilian plane maker Embraer
in Sao Jose dos Campos and toured the production line for its
narrow-body commercial E-Jets.
Nelson will continue his South American trip this week with
visits to Argentina and Colombia.
(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Brad Haynes and Bill
Berkrot)
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