Monitoring Illegal Mining in the Amazon: Turning Persistent Data Into Actionable Insight

Cherie Tyrrell Thursday, May 28, 2026

Illegal mining over decades has constituted one of the most persistent and complex socio-environmental problems in the Brazilian Amazon. In recent years, with the increasingly intensive use of mechanized extraction, the associated environmental impacts—such as deforestation, intense soil disturbance, river siltation, and mercury contamination—have become broader, faster, and large-scale.

In addition, there are factors that hinder enforcement and ultimately favor the expansion of illegal mining, among them its predominant occurrence in remote regions of the Amazon and the limited atmospheric windows for monitoring by optical orbital satellites, which present lower cloud cover only between the months of June and September.

Given this scenario, the use of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging satellites combined with high-performance processing solutions, such as those available in ENVI^® SARscape, developed by NV5 and Sarmap and distributed by SulSoft in Brazil, becomes essential to achieving effective monitoring of illegal mining in the Amazon.

Aerial view of illegal mining in the Amazon

Aerial view of illegal mining activity in the Brazilian Amazon, showing deforestation and soil disturbance typical of mechanized extraction operations.

Landsat and SAR image comparison

Multispectral image scene acquired by the Landsat 8 satellite in November 2025 over an Amazonian region along the Brazil–Venezuela border, with a highlight of a high-resolution SAR image scene acquired by the StriX-3 satellite, courtesy of Synspective (Japan).

SAR Imaging for All-Weather Monitoring

The SAR images acquired by the StriX constellation have specific characteristics—X-band, VV polarization, high spatial resolution, and high revisit frequency—that make them efficient for operations supporting the monitoring and enforcement of illegal activities and territorial security.

Key Applications of High-Resolution SAR Imagery

Below are some of the main applications of high-resolution SAR imagery in ENVI SARscape for monitoring illegal mining:

Detection of river dredges and ships
Identification of clandestine airstrips
Mapping of recent clearings
Monitoring and detection of ground changes
Detection of reoccupation of areas after enforcement operations

Homologous optical and SAR comparison

Homologous optical and SAR areas showing the StriX SAR + Landsat 9 fusion. Left: true-color composite from Landsat 8. Right: fused image processed in ENVI SARscape 6.2.

Image Sharpening: Combining Radar and Optical

In the fusion result, alterations in the hydrological pattern, vegetation suppression, soil disturbance, and clearings typical of mining activity are easily perceptible.

The Image Sharpening process is one of the most effective and robust techniques for detecting illegal mining areas in the Amazon, precisely because it combines temporal continuity (radar) with visual and semantic interpretation aspects (optical).

SAR and Sentinel-2 fusion comparison

Comparison of the StriX SAR + Landsat 9 fusion at 1-meter spatial resolution (left) with the 10-meter true-color composite from Sentinel-2 (right).

Detecting Activity at the Mining Site Level

Mining site detail showing airstrips and equipment

Detailed view near illegal mining areas showing clandestine airstrips, dredging pits, river siltation, and high-intensity point signals from machinery and equipment.

In detail, near the illegal mining areas it is possible to observe the presence of clandestine airstrips for small aircraft landings, dredging pits, non-natural siltation along the margins of watercourses, and machinery and equipment (high-intensity point signals).

Tracking Deforestation Expansion Over Time

From the fused image, we can observe the expansion of deforested areas between the acquisition dates of the Landsat 9 scene (09/22/2022), delineated by the yellow polygon, and the acquisition date of the StriX-3 scene (11/02/2025), delineated by the red polygon.

The deforested area increased from 4.3 hectares in September 2022 to 25 hectares in November 2025.

Deforestation expansion between 2022 and 2025

Fused image showing the expansion of deforested areas. The yellow polygon delineates the Landsat 9 scene (09/22/2022) and the red polygon shows the StriX-3 scene (11/02/2025). Deforested area grew from 4.3 hectares in September 2022 to 25 hectares in November 2025.

Expanding Capability With Advanced SAR Techniques

The ability to perform SAR time series analysis, AI-assisted classification, and ground movement analysis using the DInSAR technique, among others available in ENVI SARscape software, significantly expands the capacity for early detection of illegal mining activity.

Learn More

ENVI^®: Geoprocessing/GIS software with AI and automation capabilities for processing large volumes of data, developed by NV5 and distributed by SulSoft in Brazil.

ENVI^® SARscape: ENVI software’s specialized module dedicated to SAR data processing, developed by NV5 in partnership with Sarmap and distributed by SulSoft in Brazil.

SAR StriX Satellite Constellation: Learn more about the StriX constellation from Synspective (Japan).

For more information, contact NV5, or in Brazil, contact SulSoft directly: info@sulsoft.com.br or by phone/WhatsApp at (51) 3333-1581.

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