Lecture 3 16/01/2017 (Part B)

Question 1

What is Remote Sensing?

Answer 1

1. The science of acquiring information about the Earth’s surface without actually being in contact with it.
2. This is done by sensing and recording
3. Reflected or emitted energy and
4. Processing, analyzing, and applying that information.

Question 2

What are the two categories of Remote Sensing technologies?

Answer 2

1. Passive: energy leading to radiation received from an external source, e.g., the Sun
2. Active: energy generated from within the sensor system is beamed outward, and the fraction returned is measured; e.g. radar, lidar, etc.

Question 3

Applications of multi-remote sensing?

Answer 3

1. Intelligence
2. SAR
3. Weather prediction,
4. Climate studies
5. Agriculture
6. Planning [utility, transportation, and infra]
7. Land use
8. Topography
9. Forestry
10. Geology

Question 4

Multi-remote sensing applications which require HIGH resolutions (spatial, temporal, and radiometric).

Answer 4

1. Intelligence
2. Emergency response
3. Weather prediction,
4. Planning [utility, transportation, and infra]
5. Agriculture

Question 5

Multi-remote sensing applications which require LOW resolutions (spatial, temporal, and radiometric).

Answer 5

6. Geology
7. Forestry
8. Land use
9. Topography
10. Climate studies

Question 6

Popular remote sensing sensors/imaging:

Answer 6

MODIS, Landsat, Quickbird, Radar, LiDAR.

Question 7

Spatial Resolution

Answer 7

Number of pixels utilized in construction of an image, more pixels = higher res.

Question 8

Pixel

Answer 8

The 2-d units that make-up an image.

Question 9

Temporal Resolution

Answer 9

The frequency with with data is captured within a fixed sensing area. (e.g., a satellite orbiting earth might capture the same image every 7 days, this is the remote sensing system temporal resolution).

Question 10

Radiometric Resolution

Answer 10

The number of divisions within a fixed remote sensing area, measured in ‘bits’.