IBGE, in partnership with the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA)...

IBGE, in partnership with the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), inaugurates today five stations of the RBMC - Brazilian Network for Continuous Monitoring of GNSS Systems (Global Navigation Satellite Systems, such as, for instance, the American GPS – Global Positioning System, and the Russian GLONASS). The stations are located in Canarana/MT (MTCN), Juína/MT (MTJU), Sorriso/MT (MTSR), Teresina/PI (PITR) and Vila Bela da Santíssima Trindade/MT (MTVB).

In addition to that, the station of Maringá/PR (PRMA), in operation for information storage since December 2008, now starts to provide data for real-time and online location with the RBMC-IP service. RBMC is the direct connection between the Brazilian Geodetic System (SGB) and similar international networks. Every day it plays a more important role in the definition of soil use, given the growing application of positioning techniques based on the GNSS.

RBMC is the most accurate three-dimensional reference structure in the country (calculating latitude, longitude and ellipsoidal height, the latter relative to the geometric model which represents the shape of the Earth): it can provide any user with locations of millimeter-accuracy. Among other uses, RBMC can be employed in the project, construction and monitoring of major engineering works, such as roads, bridges and levees, in the demarcation of land for indigenous or quilombola populations and environmental protection, and in the monitoring of vehicles.

That results from the everyday collection of information, which allows the calculation of coordinates (latitude, longitude and ellipsoidal height) from several points of the national territory. In the case of the earthquakes that hit Chile last year and Japan on March 11 this year, it was possible to detect displacement of up to three meters using similar stations spread over these countries and their neighbors.

Having begun to be implemented in December 1996, RBMC was the first network of this kind to be installed in South America. There are currently 85 stations in operation, six at the end of the installation and testing process (Benjamin Constant/AM, Novo Progresso/PA, Parintins/AM, Quixeramobim/CE, São Carlos/SP and Santarém/PA) and two in the project and installation phase (Barcelos/AM e Coari/AM). The stations are high-precision receivers of artificial satellite signs, and, through the interconnection with networks from other countries and continents, contribute to improve the system as a whole.

The data and reports of all stations may be accessed by registered users on the IBGE web site, at

www.ibge.gov.br/home/geociencias/download/tela_inicial.php?tipo=8; and also from the FTP Server, at ftp://geoftp.ibge.gov.br/RBMC/. These data are organized as files of daily observations, always relative to the immediately previous day. It is also possible to receive information about RBMC on Twitter @IBGE_RBMC.