Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais
Brazilian federal research institute under MCTI, established 1971 (predecessor CONAE from 1961), headquartered in Sao Jose dos Campos. Operational/research arm of the Brazilian space programme (AEB is the policy agency). Runs the CBERS satellite programme jointly with CAST (China) since 1988, Amazonia-1 (launched Feb 2021, designed and integrated under Brazilian technical leadership with INVAP subsystem contributions), and the TerraBrasilis distribution portal for PRODES annual deforestation and DETER near-real-time alerts. Standards authority on tropical-deforestation monitoring methodology used across the EU EUDR ecosystem and MapBiomas.
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE) is Brazil's federal space and Earth observation research institute, established in 1971 as a research unit within the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations. Headquartered in Sao Jose dos Campos, Sao Paulo, INPE operates Brazil's primary EO data systems and co-manages satellite programmes with international partners.
INPE's most internationally recognised contribution is its long-running deforestation monitoring infrastructure. PRODES, operational since 1988, produces annual benchmarks of native vegetation suppression across all seven Brazilian biomes; these figures constitute the official measure of Brazilian forest loss referenced in national enforcement and international reporting. DETER provides near-real-time alerts at two-week cadence, feeding Brazil's environmental enforcement agency (IBAMA) with operational intelligence for field response. Both systems are disseminated through INPE's TerraBrasilis platform.
In satellite development, INPE has led the CBERS programme in partnership with China's CAST since 1988. Six CBERS satellites have been launched across five missions (CBERS-1, -2, -2B, -4, and -4A), with CBERS-3 lost to a launch failure in 2013. CBERS-4 and CBERS-4A are operational, carrying instruments ranging from 5m panchromatic to 60m wide-field imaging. Data from these satellites is distributed freely in Brazil and partner countries.
INPE also developed Amazonia-1, launched in February 2021 aboard India's PSLV-C51 rocket. The 637 kg satellite carries an Advanced Wide Field Imager (AWFI) with 60m resolution and an 850 km swath, completing full Earth imaging cycles every 4 days. The mission was designed and integrated under Brazilian technical leadership, with subsystem contributions from Argentina's INVAP.
Beyond EO operations, INPE runs weather and climate forecasting through its CPTEC centre, space weather monitoring through the EMBRACE programme, and graduate research programmes in space and atmospheric sciences.[^inpe-base-juridica][^inpe-cbers-faq][^wiki-amazonia1][^terrabrasilis-downloads]