Introduction to Remote Sensing

Description

Remote sensing is the examination or the gathering of information about a place from a distance. Such examination can occur with devices (e.g.-cameras) based on the ground, and/or sensors or cameras based on ships, aircraft, satellites, or other spacecraft. Today, the data obtained is usually stored and manipulated using computers. The most common software used in remote sensing is ERDAS Imagine, ESRI, MapInfo, and ERMapper. Remote Sensing is the science and art of acquiring information (spectral, spatial, temporal) about material objects, area, or phenomenon, without coming into physical contact with the objects, or area, or phenomenon under investigation. Without direct contact, some means of transferring information through space must be utilised. In remote sensing, information transfer is accomplished by use of electromagnetic radiation (EMR). EMR is a form of energy that reveals its presence by the observable effects it produces when it strikes the matter. EMR is considered to span the spectrum of wavelengths from 10-10 mm to cosmic rays up to 1010 mm, the broadcast wavelengths, which extend from 0.30-15 mm. Remote sensing is the small- or large-scale acquisition of information of an object or phenomenon, by the use of either recording or real-time sensing device(s) that are wireless, or not in physical or intimate contact with the object (such as by way of aircraft, spacecraft, satellite, buoy, or ship). In practice, remote sensing is the stand-off collection through the use of a variety of devices for gathering information on a given object or area. Thus, Earth observation or weather satellite collection platforms, ocean and atmospheric observing weather buoy platforms, the monitoring of a parolee via an ultrasound identification system, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Positron Emission Tomography (PET), X-radiation (X-RAY) and space probes are all examples of remote sensing. This book has been designed to cater to the wishes of those involved in this subject. The comprehensive and insightful nature of the book should serve to make it a book worth reading for the reader.