Lecture 1 Intro To Remote Sensing
Lecture 1 Intro To Remote Sensing
Lecture 1 Intro To Remote Sensing
Un‐Conventional Definition
Remote Sensing is the most expensive way to make a picture
Having fun without touching
Staying as far away from the problem as possible
Introduction
What is terrestrial remote sensing?
Terrestrial remote sensing is the science of deriving
information about objects, areas, phenomena of earth
surface features from measurements made at a
distance, using electromagnetic radiation in one or
more regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
History of Remote Sensing
1666 Isaac Newton while experimenting with a prism, found that
he could disperse light into a spectrum of red, orange, yellow,
green, blue, indigo, and violet. Utilizing a second prism, he found
that he could re‐combine the colors into white light.
1777 Carl Wilhelm Scheele, a Swedish chemist, discovers that
silver chromate darkened by exposure to sunlight could be rinsed
off with ammonia leaving the dark unexposed silver chromate
crystals to form a "fixed" image, a precursor to modern
photographic film.
1800 Discovery of Infrared spectrum by Sir William Herschel
History of Remote Sensing
1839 Beginning of practice of photography
1847 Infrared spectrum shown to share properties
with visible light
1850‐60 Photography from balloons
History of Remote Sensing
1855 James Clerk Maxwell, a Scottish physicist,
describes color addictive theory for the producing
color photographs
1873 Theory of electromagnetic energy developed
by James C Maxwell
History of Remote Sensing
History of Remote Sensing
1909 Photography from
airplane
1914‐1918 World War I:
aerial reconnaissance
1920‐30 Development &
initial applications of
aerial photography &
photogrammetry
History of Remote Sensing
1930‐40 Development of radar in Germany, US and
UK
1940‐50 World War II: applications of nonvisible
portions of EM spectrum
1950‐60 Military research and development
1960's US begins collection of intelligence
photography from Earth orbiting satellites, Corona
History of Remote Sensing
1956 Colwell’s research on disease detection with infrared photography
1960‐70 First use of term ”Remote Sensing” TIROS Weather satellites, SkyLab
remote sensing observations from space.
1972 Civilian satellite remote sensing: launch of Landsat 1
1970‐80 Rapid advances in digital image processing
1980‐90 Landsat 4: new generation of Landsat TM; SPOT: French Earth
Observation Satellite
1980s Development of hyperspectral sensors
1990s Global RS systems; Spaceborne SAR systems; Very high‐resolution
satellites; LiDAR
2005 Google Inc. releases Keyhole, http://earth.google.com,
http://maps.google.com greatly increasing public awareness of the uses of
satellite imagery & other geospatial information.
2007 3D Virtual Earth (http://www.microsoft.com/virtualearth)
The Remote Sensing Framework
The Remote Sensing Framework
Landscape/Terrain
Complex mosaic (e.g., geophysical, biophysical,
cultural)
Landscape/terrain Characteristics vary over
SPACE (geographically varied)
TIME (temporally dynamic)
Toronto (Canada) Area over time
1983 1988 1990
1996 2001
Toronto (Canada) Area over time
KhaoLak, Thailand Over time
ASTER- Achive
Tsunami
2004/12/26
Nonselective Scattering
Caused by particles with much larger diameters than the
wavelength of the scattered radiation.
For radiation in and near the visible spectrum, such particles
might be water droplets or large particles of airborne dust.
Interactions of Radiation with the
Atmosphere ‐ Refraction
Refraction
Occurs in the atmosphere as light passes
through air masses of different clarity,
humidity and temperature
Interactions of Radiation with the Atmosphere ‐ Absorption
Absorption
Most efficient absorbers: Water vapor (strongest absorption in 5.5‐7µm and above
27µm), carbon dioxide (strongest absorption in the region 13‐17.5µm), and ozone
(max. concentrations at 20-30km)
10.2 ‐ 12.4 µm
Microwave 7.5 ‐ 11‐5 mm
20.0+ mm
Interactions of Radiation with Earth Surface
Features
Interactions of Radiation with Earth Surface
Features
Specular vs. Diffuse Reflectance
Spectral Signatures Dominant Factor
Controlling Leaf Reflectance
Water Absorption
Spectral Signatures
Spectral Signatures
Normal Color
Airphoto
Color Infrared
Airphoto
Thanks
Questions??