Remote Sensing

Natural Changes

Changes to the Earth System that occur due to processes that operate irrespective of humans

Anthropogenic Changes

Changes to the Earth System that occur due to human activity

Electromagnetic Waves

Waves that have two components: an electric field and a magnetic field that propagate in perpendicular directions

Electromagnetic Waves

Waves that do not require direct contact or a medium to propagate through and can travel through solids, liquids, and gases, as well as the vacuum of Space

Electromagnetic Radiation

Energy that is transfered (emitted from body and then absorbed in another body) at any wavelength through radiation

Greenhouse Gases

 A gas that can "trap" heat in the atmosphere by absorbing and re-emitting infrared radiation

Greenhouse Effect

 As Earth radiates heat, greenhouse gases absorb this infrared radiation and re-emit it in all directions. Heat in the form of infrared radiation is redirected back down towards Earth, which warms the Earth’s surface and atmosphere

Albedo

Used to describe the reflectivity of a surface and usually is a value between 0-1. A value of 0 is perfectly absorbing while 1 is perfectly reflecting

Satellite

An object that orbits a larger object. In this lab, we will refer to satellites as an anthropogenic object that orbits the Earth

Inclination

The angle that a satellite's orbit deviates from the equator. A satellite that passes over both of the poles has an inclination of 90°

Spectral Band

The range of specific wavelengths that data collected from a sensor/satellite includes

Spatial Resolution

A measure of how much detail is collected by the sensor. Higher-resolution data uses smaller cells, allowing more features to be seen. Lower-resolution data uses larger cells which requires less space to store and may load faster, but detail is lost. 1m is a higher resolution than 10m

True Color Images

Images from satellite data that combine actual measurements of red, green, and blue light. These images are familiar to us because the results look like what we are used to

False Color Images

Images from satellite data that use at least one non-visible in addition to other wavelengths. The data is still represented as red, green, or blue. The resulting image can be drastically different from what we normally see-- but it can be very useful to highlight subtle patterns in the data