INTRODUCTION TO REMOTE

SESNING CONCEPTS
SEMESTER 1
M.TECH GEOMATICS
2017
 CONTENTS
1. Remote Sensing definition, understanding
2. Sun and Atmosphere
3. Concept of Signatures
4. Remote Sensing System
5. Why observe the Earth from Space??
6. The Earth Observation Evolution-A Paradigm Shif
7. Remote Sensing A Historic Perspective
8. Indian Remote Sensing Programme
9. Legal and Ethical Aspects
*** Quiz for 5,6,7,8,9 next class (5 marks)
 1. REMOTE SENSING DEFINITION,
UNDERSTANDING
Remote Sensing (RS) is an activity which each one of us have been carrying out since our birth. Reading a book and hearing
the sound around is RS. In this case the sensors are our eyes and ears.These sensors are not in contact with the object that
is being sensed.

However, in order to measure the body temperature, a clinical thermometer is used-by contact with the body. This can be
referred to In-situ measurement.

Generalized Definition of RS: It is the science of making inferences about objects from measurements, made at a
distance, without coming into physical contact with the objects under study.

Can be used to gather information about any object without actually coming in contact with it.

Any force field- acoustic, gravity, magnetic, electromagnetic, etc. could be used , for various applications.

However RS is more commonly used to denote identification of earths features by detecting the characteristic EM
radiation that is reflected/emitted by the earths system.
 UN definition for RS (95th plenary meeting, 3rd Dec, 1986) : Remote Sensing means sensing of the earths
surface from space by making use of the properties of electromagnetic wave emitted, reflected or
diffracted by the sensed objects, for the purpose of improving natural resource management, land use and
the protection of the environment.

Example: Papaya is ripe when it turns yellow- the following process takes place to arrive at this conclusion:
1. Ripe papaya has a characteristic colour due to certain processes in the fruit.

2. We have been told by knowledgeable persons with previous experiences that when papaya turns yellow, it is
ripe.

3. This information is stored in our brain and comes in handy when we come across a similar situation.

4. When we see the characteristics colour of the skin of the fruit, this data is compared with the information
stored in our brain and if it matches we conclude that the fruit is ripe.

**We cannot say whether is it sweet: that requires in- situ sensing!!
 Modern Remote Sensing is an extension of this natural process. Apart from the visible light, the EM radiation
extending from ultraviolet (UV) to the far infrared and the microwave regions is also used for remote sensing of
the earths resources.

If the observation is made based on the EM radiation from the sun or self-emitted radiance, it is called passive
remote sensing.
Eg: Optical: photographic cameras, opto-mechanical scanners(MSS), IRS-LISS (push-broom scanner) and
Microwaves: Scanning Microwave Radiometer (MSMR)

It is also possible to produce EM radiation of a specific wavelength or band or band of wavelengths to

illuminate the object or terrain. The interaction of this radiation can be studied by sensing the scattered
radiance from the target. This is called active remote sensing.
Eg:Optical -IR (OIR): LIDAR, Microwaves: Scatterometer, SAR

The basic process involved in RS: Interaction (or emission) of the EM radiation with matter.

EM radiation is made up of electric and magnetic fields and spans a large spectrum of wavelengths from very
-10 6
 2. SUN AND ATMOSPHERE
Sun is the most important source of EM radiation used in passive RS.

Assume the sun to be a blackbody with surface temperature - 6000K

Suns radiation covers UV, visible, infrared, and radio frequency regions. Maximum radiation occurs around 0.55m-in the
visible region.

Solar radiations reaching the earths surface are also modified by atmospheric effects.

All bodies at temperature above absolute zero degree emit EM radiation at different wavelengths as per Plancks law.

Considering the earth to be a black body at 300K, its emits EM radiations with a peak at around 9.5m. Thus during the day if
we observed the earth, solar radiation is reflected by the earths surface and the emission from the earths surface.

Beyond 5 m, the radiation from the earth is mainly due to the emission process.
Concept of Atmospheric Windows:
The solar radiation, while passing through the atmosphere, gets scattered and absorbed by gases and particulates.
The strongest absorption occurs at wavelengths shorter than 0.3m, primarily due to ozone.
Certain spectral regions of the EM radiation pass through the atmosphere without much attenuation. These regions are
called Atmospheric Windows.
RS of the earths surface is mostly confined to these wavelength regions, which are
0.4-1.3 m
1.5-1.8 m
2.2-2.6 m
3.0-3.6 m
4.2-5.0 m
7.0-15.0 and
1 cm 30 cm

Even in the atmospheric windows, scattering by atmospheric molecules and aerosols produces spatial redistribution of
energy.
The scattered/diffused radiance entering the filed of view of a remote sensor, other than that from the target of interest, is
called Path Radiance.
 Path radiance reduces the contrast of the image generated by the sensor, thereby reducing visual sharpness of the
image.

Also the apparent radiance of the ground targets, as measured by the remote sensor, differs from the actual surface
radiance because of the intervening atmosphere, thus producing radiometric error.

Various methods have been developed to reduce/ or provide atleast approximate corrections.

The atmosphere including haze and clouds, is comparatively much transparent to microwaves than to optical and
infrared region. Hence, microwave RS using active sensors like Side Looking Airborne Radar (SLAR), Synthetic Aperture
Radar (SAR), etc have an all weather capability.

Radiometric errors here , can be used to derive information on atmospheric constituents and vertical temperature
profile.
 3. CONCEPT OF SIGNATURES
EM radiation when incident on a surface, either gets reflected, absorbed, re-radiated or transmitted through the material
depending on the nature of the object and the wavelength of the incident radiation.
As the nature of interaction of electromagnetic radiation with an object depends on its cumulative properties, the study of
these interactions can lead to an understanding of the objects under observation.
In RS, the basic property which allows identification of an object is called Signature .
Any set of observable characteristics, which directly or indirectly leads to the identification of an object or its condition is
termed as signature.
4 major characteristics of targets which facilitate discrimination are: Spectral, Spatial, Temporal and Polarisation variations:
Spectral Variations: changes in reflectance/emittance of objects as a function of wavelength.
Spatial Variations: spatial arrangements of terrain features providing attributes such as shape, size, and texture of
objects that allow its identification.
Temporal Variations: Changes in reflectivity or emissivity with time. They can be diurnal/seasonal.
Polarisation Variations: Changes in polarization of the radiation reflected or emitted by an object.

Signatures are not completely deterministic. They are statistical in nature with a certain mean value and some dispersion
around it.
Multi-spectral Concept:
Spectral variation is the most ofen used signature,
especially in the optical-IR region.

Image shows spectral variation of some natural objects

from 0.4 to 2.0 m.

Not easy to generate continuous spectra for identifying

objects.

Practical solution: observations in a number of discrete

spectral regions, referred to as spectral bands.
Band 3: red, Band 4:NIR of IRS LISS 3 taken ,
Features selected are water ,crop and barren
 4. REMOTE SENSING SYSTEM
Following are the different stages in RS:
1. Origin of electromagnetic energy (sun, transmitter carried by the sensor).
2. Transmission of energy from the source to the earths surface of the earth and its interaction with the intervening
atmosphere.
3. Interaction of energy with the earths surface (reflection/absorption/transmission) or self-emission.
4. Transmission of the reflected/emitted energy to the remote sensor placed on a suitable platform, through the
intervening atmosphere.
5. Detection of the energy by the sensor, converting it into photographic image or electrical output.
6. Transmission/recording of the sensor output.
7. Pre-processing of the data and generation of the data products.
8. Collection of ground truth and other collateral information.
9. Data analysis and interpretation
10. Integration of interpreted images with the other data towards deriving management strategies for various themes or
other applications.
Remote Sensors: Instruments used to measure EM radiations reflected /emitted by the target under
study. Types: Passive and Active remote sensors
 The four resolutions are the most basic requirements of any sensor system.

There are no unique acceptable values for them. Depends on specific applications.

Eg: to study motion of clouds, spatial resolution of about a km is acceptable, while the frequency of observation
(temporal resolution), should be 30mts or better. Cloud formation characteristics are spatially large, but are subject
to dynamic mobility.
While for agricultural studies, a few tends of meter resolution is desirable with a few days of temporal
resolution. This is because landuse changes in small spatial units, while change due to growth occurs gradually
over a few days.

Other aspects like dynamic range ( minimum to maximum radiance that can be faithfully measured), radiometric
accuracy, geometric fidelity, etc., should be kept in mind while designing, realizing, and utilizing a sensor
Platforms:
Orbits:
An orbit is a regular, repeating path that one object in space takes around another one.
An object in an orbit is called a satellite. A satellite can be natural, like Earth or the moon. Many planets have moons that orbit
them. A satellite can also be man-made, like the International Space Station.
Types of Orbits:
a. Geostationary Orbit: As the distance of the satellite from the earth increases, the period of revolution also increases. At
36000km, the period of the satellite is exactly equal to that of the earths revolution.
A satellite kept at the equatorial plane at that height (called geostationary orbit), appears stationary with respect to the
earth.
Thus the satellite can have a constant view of a particular part of the earth.
Observation from the geostationary orbit is generally used to derived information on meteorological parameters.

b. Sun-synchronous (Polar) orbit : Also called the near-earth orbit. Its height varies from few hundred kms to thousand kms.
In this type of orbit, all points at a given latitude will have the same local mean solar time.
The ground trace of the sun-synchronous satellite can made to recur over a scene exactly at intervals of a fixed no. of days
by maintaining the height and inclination of the orbit to a close tolerance.
This ensures repetitive observations of a scene at the same local time.
As the fixed local time provides near identical solar illumination, it provides advantages for interpretation of satellite data,
while monitoring dynamic changes that occur on the earth.
Data product Generation:
Acquired data has a number of errors due to:
a. Imaging characteristics of the sensor
b. Stability and orbit characteristics of the platform
c. Scene/surface characteristics
d. Motion of the earth
e. Atmospheric effects
Data products are generated afer correcting the errors so that the inherent quality of the original information of the scene
(geometry, radiometry and information content) is retained.
Data products are generated in standardized formats photographic or digital form.
A photographic product (computer display) generated from each spectral band gives different shades of grey-black to white.
Black and white pictures can be produced from each band of digital data.
However any 3 bands can be combined to give a colour imagery. If images are taken in blue, green and red bands, they can be
combined to give natural colour.
In case of vegetation, maximum reflectance normally takes place in the Near-IR region.
To take advantage of this, remote sensing data usually combines green, red, and IR bands, representing blue, green and red
respectively for image formation.
This results in the formation of a False Colour Composite (FCC) image, since the colour represented is not the actual colour
perceived by us. Hence vegetation appears red.
Data Analysis:
Two important techniques of data analysis needed to extract resource related information either independently or in combination with other data are:

a. Visual Interpretation:
It is a traditional method for extracting information from a photograph based on characteristics such as tone, texture, shadow, shape, size,
association, etc.

The process is simple however has few shortcomings:

The gray values produced on a film or a print is limited in comparison to what can be recorded in digital form.

No. of colour tones recognized by the human brain is quite large, however limited! Hence full advantage of radiometric resolution of an
instrument cannot be made use of while visually interpreting the data.

Interpreter is likely to be subjective in discerning subtle differences in tones and hence visual interpretation tends to be qualitative than
quantitative.

When photographs are generated from digital data, the contrast if further degraded.

Visual interpretation poses limitations while combining data from various sources.

Above all, when large volume of data has to be analysed, it cannot meet the throughout requirements.
b. Digital techniques:
Facilitates quantitative analysis, making use of full spectral information and avoids individual bias.

Analysis of multi-temporal and multi-sensor data is generally facilitated in digital methods.

In digital classification, the computer analyses the spectral signature, so as to associate each pixel with a particular
feature of imagery. The reflectance value measured by a sensor for the same feature will not be identical for all pixels.

For eg., in a wheat field, all the pixels will not have identical reflectance values. The response variation within a class is to
be expected for any earth surface cover due to various reasons. Thus, the radiance value for a class will have a mean and
a variance.

When clusters corresponding to different ground covers are distinct, it possible to associate localized regions of the
feature space with specific ground covers.

Such distinct clusters donot happen in real life situations. The digital classification technique essentially partitions this
feature space in some fashion so that each pixel in the feature space can be uniquely associated with one of the classes.
This partition can be achieved by suitable statistical methods.
End Utilization:
Information generated from remote sensing can be represented in many ways- tabular data or as maps.

Maps illustrate geographic relationships which are not readily apparent when viewing tabular data.

For eg. Reclamation of wasteland and putting it to productive use:

RS can generate images of wasteland from which thematic experts may produce wasteland maps.

For what the waste land can be used, will require information like soil type, groundwater potential, road
network, etc. Each of this can be represented as thematic maps from the RS data.

Socio-economic status and funds details at village/district can further be used for development.

All the above information can then be put together using a GIS system for final decision making on the waste
land development.