MDA Information Systems Group (MDA), has signed a multi-million dollar contract to supply digital elevation products to the government of Indonesia.

MDA will use RADARSAT-2 data to produce digital elevation models that will allow the government of Indonesia to develop large-scale geological maps of a total area of approximately 600,000 square kilometers. The contract will run for three months.

The National Coordinating Agency for Surveys and Mapping of Indonesia (NCASM) is currently developing a spatial data infrastructure through which it can disseminate maps and geospatial information to the private sector and the public.

MDA says the RADARSAT-2 satellite's ability to image the Earth independent of atmospheric conditions is a valuable feature in collecting images over cloudy regions such as Indonesia.

In addition, the satellite's global high-resolution surveillance capabilities, large collection capacity and high accuracy offer radargrammetrists the ability to build high quality DEMs in a timely manner.