eas 1600 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; don’t require direct contact or a medium to propagate through and can travel through solids, liquids, gases, as well as the vacuum of space

electromagnetic radiation

energy that’s transferred (emitted from body 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 direction. heat in the form or 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, usually 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

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; 1M is higher resolution than 10M

true color images

images from satellite data that combine actual measurements of R, G, B light.

false color images

images from satellite data that use at lease one non-visible in addition to other wavelengths; data still represented as R, G, B but resulting image can be drastically different from what we normally see; useful to highlight subtle patterns in the date