The Space Application Centre, (SAC) part of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), here today launched new version of its indigenous software IGIS for analysis of GIS and image processing data.

The version 1.1 of IGIS (integrated GIS and image processing software) was launched by director of SAC, Dr R R Navalgund at a function here.

"IGIS is a software which is indigenously developed catering to the needs of our own satellite data and is available at a low cost to academic institutions," Navalgund told reporters here.

"It could provide information like crop production in India, ground water availability, change in water levels of reservoirs, what is happening to mangroves, results of afforestation. In short it would be useful for all natural resources," he said.

Navalgund, however, said that though new modules have been added to the IGIS 1.1 version, it still lacked capability to analyse microwave data.

"IGIS will not be complete without tools for analysing microwave data. Within six to eight months time, we would be launching a satellite that would provide data in microwave form. And so if we want to analyse the data we need the tools," he said, adding that in next few months the people who designed the IGIS could upgrade it further to be able to analyse microwave data. .

According to Navalgund, due to advancement in technology, the sheer quantum of data available for analysis has gone up and there is a need for analytical tool to handle the enormous data and hence software like IGIS becomes important.

The IGIS is a joint venture of ISRO with city-based Scanpoint Geomatics Ltd.