President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Monday hosted NASA administrator Bill Nelson and U.S. Ambassador Elizabeth Bagley at the presidential palace. According to a statement from the Brazilian government, Mr. Nelson spoke of the possibility of supporting Brazil’s fight against deforestation with the help of new aircraft capable of capturing precise photographs of fires, soil erosion, and sediment deposits in the ocean along the Amazon River. The Inpe currently runs two satellite programs that monitor deforestation, named Prodes and Deter. Prodes generates annual deforestation data with higher-quality images, while Deter delivers daily alerts to support environmental and police agencies on the ground.
