Earth Observation

Man must rise above the Earth,

to the top of the atmosphere and
beyond, for only thus will he fully
understand the world in which he
lives

What is remote sensing?

In very simple terms,
remote sensing means
gaining knowledge about
distant objects
A very simple example of
this is human vision
Instruments can be used to
aid vision
Instruments can be used to
record visual images
Recording images as
photographs represents a
structured form of remote
sensing

Earth Observation
In the context of a
technical discipline,
remote sensing generally
refers to Earth
Observation
This involves acquiring
and interpreting
remotely-sensed
photographs or images of
the Earths surface

Remotely-sensed images

Numerous sources, types and

scales of imagery are available

How does remote sensing work?

Remotely-sensed images represent
the Earths surface
but how?

Remote sensing instruments measure

the electromagnetic energy reflected
from features on the Earths surface
What is electromagnetic energy!?
The most common example is
blindingly obvious
solar radiation, or sunlight

Image acquisition
Sun

User

Sensor

Incoming solar
radiation
Atmospheric
distortion

Received
radiation

Data
supply
Data
download

Scattered
radiation

Reflected
radiation

Ground
receiving
station

Absorbed/transmitted
radiation
Earths surface

Data format
Viewed numerically as
Digital Numbers (DNs)

Satellite
path

Image
data set

59

88

132

128

134

135

12

14

56

124

118

128

15

25

78

112

12

18

45

Raster grid

Field of
view

Ground track
(imaged area)
Viewed graphically
as image

Picture
element
or pixel

Multispectral imagery
A multispectral image comprises several bands or layers
Each band represents a certain part of the electromagnetic
spectrum
Individually, each band contains a limited amount of information
In combination, the bands comprise a powerful data set
True colour composite
Bands 3 (red), 2 (green), 1 (blue)

1
Typical spectral reflectance curves

123 4

Bare soil

4
Vegetation

5
6
7
Landsat Thematic Mapper
7 visible, near-, mid- and thermal -infrared bands

Water

False colour composite

A false colour composite image
includes an infrared band,
providing a display that can
appear unconventional (e.g. red
vegetation, blue concrete)

Typical spectral reflectance curves

Bare soil

Vegetation

Water

Band 4 near infrared

False colour composite

Bands 4 (NIR), 3 (red), 2 (green)

Band 3 - red

Band 2 - green

Landsat
Series of remote sensing satellite missions,
developed by NASA
First major civil remote sensing initiative, starting in
1972
Landsat-7 was launched in 1999, carrying the
Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) sensor
The ETM+ sensor provides various types of imagery:
Spectral
waveband

Spatial
resolution

Panchromatic
imagery

Visible/near infrared

15 m

Multispectral
imagery

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

30 m
30 m
30 m
30 m
30 m
60 m
30 m

Blue
Green
Red
Near infrared
Mid infrared
Thermal infrared
Mid infrared

Sometimes
orthorectified
to 25 m
Often excluded
from multispectral
analysis

How is remote sensing used?

In lots of different ways!
A few geographical examples

Illegal deforestation
Remote sensing helped prove the widely held suspicion that
extensive illegal deforestation was taking place in the
Amazon in the early 1990s

Forest canopy heighting

Airborne remote sensing using laser technology (Light
Detection And Ranging or LiDAR) can measure elevation and
height with great accuracy
LiDAR imagery can derive both a Digital Terrain Model of the
ground surface and a Canopy Height Model of above-surface
(forest) features

Wildlife habitat monitoring

Animal populations can be monitored using image-derived
habitat data
Normalised Difference Vegetation Index images were used
to assess structural vegetation change in Kruger National
Park in relation to rapidly increasing elephant populations
1988

1999

1990

2000
Black rhino
White rhino
Elephant

Greenhouse gas flux modelling

500

50

400

40

300

30

200

20

100

10

Classes

0
Feb

March

April

May

June

July

August Sept

Month
Palm
Hard wood
Sawgrass
Rainfall

CO

Nov

Rainfall (cm)

-2

-1

CO2 (mg m h )

Imagery can be used in tandem with ground and other

physical data, enabling spatial characterisation of
environmental processes
Gas flux measurements acquired in situ are mapped
according to image-derived land cover categories

Banana
Urban
Water
Other

Vegetation gradient
1. Sawgrass bog plain
2. Stunted forest
3. Hardwood forest
4. Mixed forest
5. Palm swamp
6. Mixed swamp
7. Mangrove swamp

Human population analysis

Nightlights imagery shows global anthropogenic footprint
Social modelling and analysis conducted with US Defense
Meteorological Satellites Program (DMSP) Operational
Linescan System (OLS) imagery

Urban planning
Fine spatial resolution satellite sensor imagery enables
detailed urban investigation
GeoEye-1 can acquire multispectral imagery with <2m
spatial resolution and panchromatic imagery <0.5m!

Geohazards
A range of remote sensing data and techniques are used in
various stages of geohazard prediction, prevention and
response
Before and after images clearly show the extent and severity
of tsunami inundation

El Nio Southern Oscillation

Synoptic view of remote sensing captures global events such as El
Nino
Sea surface temperature anomalies were computed from images
collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR)

Antarctic ice depletion

Remotely-sensed imagery shows the scale and speed of ice cap breakup
Larsen B ice shelf collapse was monitored using NASAs Terra satellites
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)

Ozone hole monitoring

Remote sensing helped discover the ozone hole in the stratosphere
Seasonal variation in ozone concentration is now monitored using
satellite sensors such as the TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder
(TOVS)

where we started
When was Earth Observation
first conceived?

Socrates
circa 399BC
Man must rise above the Earth, to the top of
the atmosphere and beyond, for only thus will
he fully understand the world in which he lives

Historical remote sensing

The earliest known examples of remote sensing
involved taking photographs from (un-manned)
balloons tethered above the area of interest
Boston
13 October 1860
Photographed by James
Wallace Black

First came photography...

Photography emerged in the
early 1800s
Early pioneers included
Joseph Nicphore Nipce...
...and later Louis Daguerre
View from the Window at Le Gras
Credited to Nicphore Nipce
c1826

Boulevard du Temple
Credited to Daguerre
c1838/39

Aerial photography followed swiftly

The potential of photography for aerial survey
was identified very quickly
Argo, Director of the Paris Observatory, advocated the
use of photography for topographic survey in 1840

By the 1950s, tethered balloons were used

successfully for aerial photography
Gaspard-Flix Tournachon, known as Nadar,
photographed Paris in 1958

The earliest existing image is of Boston, dating

from 1860 and taken by James Wallace Black
Boston, as the eagle and the wild goose see it, is a
very different object from the same place as the solid
citizen looks up at its eaves and chimneys, Oliver
Wendell Holmes, Atlantic Monthly, July 1863

Aeroplanes brought great potential

Manned aeroplane travel dates from the Wright brothers first
flight in 1903
Wilbur Wright piloted an aeroplane in France and Italy in
1980/09 from which motion pictures were taken
This is considered the first example of aerial photography
from an aeroplane

International Society for Photogrammetry

The International Society for
Photogrammetry was founded by Eduard
Dolezal in Vienna in 1910
Photogrammetry is concerned with
geometric measurement from
photographic images
The principal application of photogrammetry over
the last century has been the compilation of maps
from aerial photographs

The expanded International Society for

Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
celebrated its Centenary in 2010
Unveiled a commemorative plaque for Dolezal

Rapid development during World War I

Aerial photography became used routinely for

military reconnaissance in World War I

Specialised aerial cameras were developed, though

their housing within the aeroplane was rudimentary

Considerable infrastructure and manpower was

committed to image processing

Example aerial photo shows Allied and German

trenches, separated by no-mans land

[Images courtesy Prof Mike Heffernans

Part 2 Geographies of Violence module]

Passchendaele, Third Battle of Ypres, 1917

Before

After

Stereoscopic 3D mapping
Stereoscopic
imaging
techniques were
developed as
early as WWI to
enable terrain
mapping
Overlapping
stereo pairs of
photos are used
to generate a 3D
image

Inter-war commercialisation
Aerial survey technology developed to
a point where it could be applied on a
mass-production basis
Private firms became involved in the
market
In the 1930s the US Geological Society
and the Tennessee Valley Authority
mapped the Tennessee River Basin, an
area of 40,000 square miles
In Europe the emphasis was on making
large scale maps of relatively small
areas

World War II
The war years saw
breakthroughs in the
use of the infrared and
microwave parts of the
electromagnetic
spectrum
The scope of image
analysis in WWII
extended towards
synoptic and strategic
monitoring of enemy
activity
There was also greater
interest in general
thematic mapping

US army aerial photos of Normandy

beaches on the eve of D-Day, 1944

Cold War
Throughout the Cold War, both the
USA and the USSR engaged heavily
in aerial surveillance, i.e. spying
Perhaps the most famous example
is aerial reconnaissance during the
Cuban missile crisis in 1962
Spy satellites were then used

extensively for several decades

US Corona
spy satellite
and imagery

U-2 spy plane

Cuban
missile sites

Developments in computing
By the 1980s, a series of
remote sensors were
providing image data for
civilian, but image analysis
was constrained by limitations
in computer technology
Effectively there was a data
bottleneck
Computational image analysis
technology developed rapidly
at this time

Post-Cold War
After the Cold War ended, both the USA and Russia
declassified military remote sensing technology
In the 1990s, spy satellite image archives became
publicly available
Restrictions on the technological sophistication of
civilian remote sensing were loosened
E.g., fine spatial resolution satellite sensors became
available

A strong commercial industry in satellite sensing

emerged, predominantly in relation to fine spatial
resolution imagery