• While Google Earth works on a downloadable client, Bhuvan works within the browser (only supports Windows and IE 6 and above).
• The ISRO Bhuvan currently has serious performance issues. The site currently very unstable. It gives up or hangs the browser every once in a while. When a layer (state, district, taluk, etc.) is turned on, it renders unevenly and sometimes fails to render at all. The navigation panel failed to load routinely and it felt like a rare sighting when we could actually use the panel.
• The promise of high resolution images has not been kept. While the service promises zoom up to 10 metres from the ground level  as against 200 metres for Google Earth, we didn’t encounter a single image with nearly as much detailing. In fact, comparative results for a marquee location such as New Delhi’s Connaught Place or Red Fort make its clear as to the inferior performance of ISRO Earth as of now.
• The navigation tools are similar to Google Earth (GE).
• The search doesn’t work if a query returns multiple results. A pop up window is supposed to give the multiple results from which the user is supposed to be able to choose. During two days of sporadic testing, we found the result only once. The rest of the time, the window would pop up, but nothing would be displayed. When the search is accurate, the software ‘flies in’ to the exact location, the same way as GE.
• Users need to create an account and download a plug-in.
• Bhuvan packs a lot of data on weather, waterbodies and population details of various administrative units. We were unable to access weather data. Clicking on icons of administrative units show basic information such as the population. For specialist users, Bhuvan might hold some attraction. For instance, there is a drought map which cab be used to compare drought situation across years and there is a flood map that shows Bihar during the Kosi flood and after. With Isro backing, Bhuvan would be able to provide such relevant data from time to time, but the application needs major improvements in terms of usability before it will be of interest to the ordinary user.
• Users can also not edit any data or tag locations.
• We hope Bhuvan is able to fix the bugs soon. But even then, to be a credible alternative to existing mapping services, and even to get new users to try it, it much provide much higher resolution images. User interest will be piqued only when they can see their house or school or local street in high resolution. With Isro data, this is easily doable.

Having said all this,  ISRO Bhuvan is still a very good step forward for ISRO in the right direction we feel. We wish all the best for ISRO and hopefully Bhuvan will mature very fast to become a good service and can really compete with Google Earth.

ISRO Bhuvan was launched on the occasion of 90th birth anniversary of Vikram Sarabhai who is considered to be the father of Indian space program. National Remote Sensing Agency played an important role in the creation of this product.

They used data provided by satellites including Resourcesat-1 to get the best possible imagery for India.

ISRO claims that the application can provide imagery of up to 10 metres for major Indian cities compared to 200 meters provided by Google Earth.

Minimum System Requirements:

• Operating System: Windows XP/Vista;CPU: Pentium 4 2.4GHz+ or AMD 2400xp+ ;System Memory (RAM): 512MB ; Hard Disk: 2GB free space ;Network Speed: 768 Kbits/sec; Graphics Card: 3D-capable with 32MB of VRAM; Screen: 1280×1024,32-bit True Color
• To browse Bhuvan, you require the Bhuvan Plug-in which can be downloaded from this website, after registration and you will also need DirectX 9.0 or higher version (www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/) and MS .NET framework 2.0 or above for installing the plug-in. Please note that the Bhuvan Plug-in can be installed with administrative privileges only.

In order to download Bhuvan Software you have to forst register with Bhuvan Website. Click Here to go to Bhuvan’s Official Web site abd register there.

Then you will directed to a page from where you can download the Bhuvan plugin from here (its actually Skyline’s terraexplorer plugin) and Microsoft’s DirectX.

In order to install the plugin, you need to have the administrator privilege in your machine. The product works only in IE and is quite buggy to start with. Hopefully we will get much better versions in the future.

>> BHUVAN QUICK DOWNLOAD LINK (Click to download Bhuvan Plugin) <<

Bhuvan Features

• Visualise 2D and 3D image data along with rich thematic information on Soil, wasteland, water resources etc.
• Fly to locations ( Flies from the current location directly to the selected location)
• Heads-Up Display ( HUD) naviation controls ( Tilt slider, north indicator, opacity, compass ring, zoom slider)
• Navigation using the 3D view Pop-up menu (Fly-in, Fly out, jump in, jump around, view point)
• 3D Fly through (3D view to fly to locations, objects in the terrain, and navigate freely using the mouse or keyboard)
• Drawing 2D objects (Text labels, polylines, polygons, rectangles, 2D arrows, circles, ellipse)
• Drawing 3D Objects (placing of expressive 3D models, 3D polygons, boxes)
• Snapshot creation (copies the 3D view to a floating window and allows to save to a external file)
• Measurement tools (Horizontal distance, aerial distance, vertical distance, measure area)
• Shadow Analysis (it sets the sun position based on the given time creating shadows and effects the lighting on the terrain)

• Access, explore and visualise 2D and 3D image data along with rich thematic information on Soil, wasteland, water resources etc.
• Visualise multi-resolution, multi-sensor, multi-temporal image data
• Superpose administrative boundaries of choice on images as required
• Visualisation of AWS ( Automatic Weather Stations) data/information in a graphic view and use tabular weather data of user choice
• Fly to locations ( Flies from the current location directly to the selected location)
• Heads-Up Display ( HUD) naviation controls ( Tilt slider, north indicator, opacity, compass ring, zoom slider)
• Navigation using the 3D view Pop-up menu (Fly-in, Fly out, jump in, jump around, view point)
• 3D Fly through (3D view to fly to locations, objects in the terrain, and navigate freely using the mouse or keyboard)
• Drawing 2D objects (Text labels, polylines, polygons, rectangles, 2D arrows, circles, ellipse)
• Drawing 3D Objects (placing of expressive 3D models, 3D polygons, boxes)
• Snapshot creation (copies the 3D view to a floating window and allows to save to a external file)
• Measurement tools (Horizontal distance, aerial distance, vertical distance, measure area)
• Shadow Analysis (it sets the sun position based on the given time creating shadows and effects the lighting on the terrain)
• There would be many more value added functions and facilities which will be added into the package from time to time.
• Particular interest of ISRO/DOS would be to provide such functionalities to common man so that he/she adopts participatory approach with scientists to solve simple problems easily and interactively.

A prototype (beta) of this application was launched on 12th August 2009.

Tata Consultancy Services has a 3 crore deal with ISRO to make advanced moon map which is taken by Chandrayaan. An official said this software will be a freeware and it needs a license for usage to check if the users are Indian nationals. This will provide better resolution compared to existing mapping solutions. Bhuvan will feature a zoom level of up to 10 meters while the Google Earth features a zoom level of up to 200 meters. ISRO has also decided to make a tracking and mapping antenna(30×15)m the largest in India in Chennai for advanced 3D mapping and resources.

The next version of Bhuvan is expected to be called Bhuvan Chandra Bhumi, which will feature both earth and moon in resolution upto 347 m maximum in near side and 432 m far side which is taken by Chandrayaan. The actual zoom level of the moon was set to 150 m but due to lack of system power and steering problems caused it to be reduced. It is developed by TCS, Infosys, Wipro and ISRO along with the partnership of Mahindra-Satyam and Cognizant Solutions. All leading Indian computer technology companies have participated in this venture with TCS as the main partner. This version is expected to be launched on early 2011 and be operational by the end of 2009 or early 2010. Nearly 90% of moon surface is captured by Chandrayaan with best qualtiy of imaging. HCL Technologies and BPL are the media partners for it.

The latest version of Bhuvan will be able to take more closer pictures of the Indian Subcontinent as compared to the Google Earth. The new ISRO Bhuvan will also feature a multi layer information mapping while the present Google Earth features a single layer information mapping system. Apart from that, Bhuvan will also update map information every year contrary to the Google Earth which updates its map information every 4 years.

“With Bhuvan we will be able to produce very local information which will be specific to only to our own country. This information available from this mapping system will be useful in addressing very local problems like floods, famines, infrastructure development, education and much more,” said ISRO chairman Dr G Madhavan Nair.

Unlike Google Earth, however the Bhuvan application will not be downloadable and will not allow users to host content in the near future. “We are not competing with Google,” said Jayaraman. A Google spokesperson declined to comment. According to P. Nag, director of the National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation, a Kolkata-based mapping agency that uses remote-sensing data to build India’s atlas, the Bhuvan project demonstrates the country’s expertise in both information and space technology.