Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring information about Earth and other planets. Remote sensing is used in numerous fields, including geophysics, geography, land surveying and most Earth science disciplines. It also has military, intelligence, commercial, economic, planning, and humanitarian applications, among others.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is a satellite-based sensor used for earth and climate measurements. There are two MODIS sensors in Earth orbit: one on board the Terra satellite, launched by NASA in 1999; and one on board the Aqua satellite, launched in 2002. MODIS has now been replaced by the VIIRS, which first launched in 2011 aboard the Suomi NPP satellite.
The Earth and Mission Science Division is a group of European Space Agency (ESA) staff mission scientists, contractors, research fellows, young graduates, trainees, and administrative staff working within the Climate Action, Sustainability and Science Department of the Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes. The Division is located at ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, South Holland, The Netherlands.
Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) may refer to one of at least two remote sensing-derived indexes related to liquid water:
A vegetation index (VI) is a spectral imaging transformation of two or more image bands designed to enhance the contribution of vegetation properties and allow reliable spatial and temporal inter-comparisons of terrestrial photosynthetic activity and canopy structural variations.
JoBea Way Holt is an American planetary scientist who has worked for NASA. Holt studied the carbon cycle in Earth's atmosphere. She is also a member of the Climate Project, and is the author of several books and research papers.
Yufang Jin is an assistant professor of remote sensing and ecosystem change at UC Davis's Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, and associate environmental scientist at the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Her research uses satellite imaging and other techniques to track and model how landscapes and ecosystems change.
Susan Patricia Harrison is a professor of ecology at the University of California, Davis who works on the dynamics of natural populations and ecological diversity. She is a fellow of the Ecological Society of America and the California Academy of Sciences. She has previously served as vice president of the American Society of Naturalists. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2018.
Jeannine Cavender-Bares is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior. Her research integrates evolutionary biology, ecology, and physiology by studying the functional traits of plants, with a particular focus on oaks.
Land cover maps are tools that provide vital information about the Earth's land use and cover patterns. They aid policy development, urban planning, and forest and agricultural monitoring.
Remote sensing in oceanography is a widely used observational technique which enables researchers to acquire data of a location without physically measuring at that location. Remote sensing in oceanography mostly refers to measuring properties of the ocean surface with sensors on satellites or planes, which compose an image of captured electromagnetic radiation. A remote sensing instrument can either receive radiation from the Earth’s surface (passive), whether reflected from the Sun or emitted, or send out radiation to the surface and catch the reflection (active). All remote sensing instruments carry a sensor to capture the intensity of the radiation at specific wavelength windows, to retrieve a spectral signature for every location. The physical and chemical state of the surface determines the emissivity and reflectance for all bands in the electromagnetic spectrum, linking the measurements to physical properties of the surface. Unlike passive instruments, active remote sensing instruments also measure the two-way travel time of the signal; which is used to calculate the distance between the sensor and the imaged surface. Remote sensing satellites often carry other instruments which keep track of their location and measure atmospheric conditions.
Qihao Weng is an American geographer, urban, environmental sustainability, and remote sensing scientist. He has been a Chair Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University since July 2021, and was the Director of the Center for Urban and Environmental Change and is a professor of geography in the Department of Earth and Environmental Systems at the Indiana State University.
Dorothy K. Hall is a scientific researcher known for her studies on snow and ice, which she studies through a combination of satellite data and direct measurements. She is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union.
The Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean (HICO) was a hyperspectral earth observation sensor that operated on the International Space Station (ISS) from 2009 to 2014. HICO collected hyperspectral satellite imagery of the Earth's surface from the ISS.
The Earth Science Decadal Survey is a publication of the United States National Research Council that identifies key research priorities in the field of Earth Sciences with a focus on remote sensing. It is written and released at the request of three United States government agencies: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The survey is produced by the Committee on the Decadal Survey for Earth Science and Applications from Space (ESAS) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) Space Studies Board, Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences. Agencies like NASA use the recommendations from the decadal survey to prioritize funding for specific types of scientific research projects.
Colleen Beckmann Mouw is an associate professor at the University of Rhode Island known for her work on phytoplankton ecology and increasing retention of women in oceanography.
Sinéad Louise Farrell is a British-American space scientist who is Professor of Geographic Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research considers remote sensing and climate monitoring. She was science lead for the ICESat-2 Mission, which used laser altimetry to make height maps of Earth.
Martha Carol Anderson is research scientist with the United States Department of Agriculture. She is known for her work in using satellite imagery to track droughts and their impact on crops. In 2022, she was elected a fellow of the American Geophysical Union. In 2024, she was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Engineering.
Water clarity is a descriptive term for how deeply visible light penetrates through water. In addition to light penetration, the term water clarity is also often used to describe underwater visibility. Water clarity is one way that humans measure water quality, along with oxygen concentration and the presence or absence of pollutants and algal blooms.
Duccio Rocchini is an Italian professor. Since 2019, he has been serving as a full professor at the University of Bologna and holds an honorary professorship at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague.
