Josh Zettel

 What is remote sensing and how is it used?

Remote sensing is the ability to use satellite images of portions of the earth and collect
information from those images. These images are important because they can tell us a vast
amount of information that the regular human eye could not detect. For example, remote
sensing can tell us how much moisture is in the ground which can be helpful for farmers.
Remote sensing can also let us study the ocean floors that man has not been to. We can
also study weather patterns and climate change over time, such as melting of glaciers and
ocean levels, we can also study geology of canyons, all of these and more can be collected
and used for important information thanks to remote sensing.
I found a you tube video that explains this well
https://youtu.be/xIsUP1Ds5Pg

 What are two types of remote sensing sensors?

1. There is Active, which means there is an energy source is provided. For example: LIDAR,
where light detection is used using pulsed laser beams of varying wavelengths to detect
information, radio is also Active because of the pulses of radio waves.
2. Passive, which means it is using the Sun as the energy source. For example, the human eye
is passive because it is using reflected energy from the sun.

 What is the electromagnetic spectrum?

The electromagnetic spectrum is a combination of all electromagnetic waves arranged
according to frequency and wavelength. GIS specialist use electromagnetic spectrum to
observe a variety of things such as vegetation, bathymetry and Infrared. The human eye is
limited to certain colors of the spectrum, but remote sensing lets us observe
electromagnetic waves we can’t see in order to measure different information.
I found a video that explains the Electromagnetic Spectrum
https://youtube.be/m4t7gTmBk3g

 What does Landsat band data look like?

Landsat band data looks grey and is called Gray Shading “which indicates the regions of the
Electromagnetic spectrum where “atmospheric windows” permit the reflected energy to
reach the satellite’s sensors.” It also has bands displayed in Greyscale values of relative
brightness that is based on its Digital Number (DN) value

 How do you visualize band data?

You can visualize band data by using different band numbers and wave lengths, also colors.
An example of this is using Color Infrared for different bands such as 4, 3, 2 or Natural color
bands 3,2, 1 or false color for imaging the uses 5, 4, 3.

 What can a pixel tell you?

Pixels are images that are made up of a grid of numbers that are arranged into different
rows and columns. Each grid is called a pixel and the pixels are assigned different numeric
values. The different values assigned to the pixels typically represent quantities that
 identify things like elevation, slope gradient, or spectral brightness of an area and when all
of the pixels are combined an image is formed.

 Describe imagery resolutions

Image resolution basically describes the details an image can hold and with how many pixels.
It is used for measuring things such as vegetation, forestry, airport, roads, mountain, and
glaciers and whatever you can capture in imagery. Image resolution gives an image clarity
and the more pixels you have within that imagery the clearer things are. For example if you
look at a satellite image of a mountain lake with less pixels than an image with more pixels
the less pixelated image would tend to be blurrier the image with high pixilation.

 What problems did you encounter in completing your signature assignment? How did you
troubleshoot them, if you did?
Overall the problems I had in this class had to do with some of the assignments. I think that
the way the assignments are explaining instructions could be based off a different version of
ARCGIS. I am thinking that the setup and organization that ARCGIS uses today has different
folder organization than the instructions for the homework. For example, for an assignment
it would ask to search in layers for some content and it would ask me to open the dashboard
and look at the content in a certain place. The content folder would be shown on the
homework yet it was not aligned to the version of ARCGIS I was using. I had to hunt down
the folders in different places. Therefore for trouble shooting, I would just do my best to
locate what I needed. Sometimes I used google to figure it out.

 Make connections between what you studied in this course with what you learned in other
courses at SLCC or before. Make specific references to your work in this class and in the other
courses. How did what you learn in the other courses enhance what you learned in here, or
vice versa?

My major is geomatics/land surveying and in those other classes we have looked at satellite
imagery to determine land boundary and analyze the terrain. Therefore, this class has
crossed over and been really helpful in learning about interpreting data within Satellite
imagery that I didn’t understand in the past. For example, I didn’t not know what Bands
were and how to use them. By learning about bands I was able to determine how thick
vegetation might be when I go out to a place to do a survey. It was also really interesting to
learn that the human eye can only pick up a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum
and that there are lots of other bands that humans can’t see.
 Different Bands
Hug Point Oregon
 Guess That Feature.

1. Confluence: Canyonlands UT.

2. Moab UT.
3. Uintah Mountains UT.
4. Salt Flats UT.
5. Grand Staircase Escalante UT.
6. Salt Lake City UT.