REMOTE SENSING

• What is the remote sensing?
• Remote Sensing in the SCIT
• Sensorial systems
• Systems of Reception
• Digital processing of Images
• Projects made in the SCIT about remote sensing
• Recommended bibliography and interesting links

SPANISH VERSION

The frame of study of the remote sensing is the remote observation of the terrestrial surface. Devised at the beginning of the 60 to designate any means of remote observation, although it was applied to the air photograph fundamentally, main sensor at that moment.

In ample sense the remote sensing does not include only the processes that allow to obtain an image from the air or the space, but also its later processing, in the context of a certain application.

The new means of remote sensing are of special interest in the fields of geography, forest Biology, study of soils, sciences, agronomy, oceanography or cartography.

The main applications of the remote sensing are multiple between which we can emphasize:

• Study of the erosion of beaches and sandy grounds.
• Regional inventory of the enviromental to prepare studies of environmental impacts.
• Geologic cartography for the mineral and petroliferus operation.
• Cartography of new volcanic deposits.
• Control of the snow accumulation, the fusion and the foreseeable changes in the availability of hydroelectric energy.
• Control of the movement of icebergs in polar zones.
• Estimation of run-off models and erosion.
• Inventory of the superficial water.
• Analysis in real time of cloudy masses of average and small scale.
• Surface and wetlands water measures to evaluate the situation of the habitat for aquatic birds.
• Verification of contents of salinity in the main water currents.
• Thermal cartography of the surface of the sea.
• Verification and control of the physical quality of the water, turbidity and content of seaweed.
• Control of the movements Gulf Stream and other current sea.
• Cartography of the vegetal cover of the ground.
• Fast evaluation of conditions of stress in the vegetation, by the effects of the drought or deforestation.
• Cartography of burned areas and pursuit of the rates of natural afforestation.
• Contribution to the cartography and inventory of the cover and use of the ground.
• Accomplishment of forest inventories.
• Selection of optimal routes for new channels of communication.
• Control of ephemeral pastizales to study effects of the drought and excessive pasturing.
• Cartography and inventory of cultures by species.
• Prediction of the yield of crops.

Most of the applications above reviewed is not exclusive of the space remote sensing, although the use of this one is able to reduce to the costs and the time in obtaining results. In brief terms, this technique contributes, front opposed to the air photograph, the following advantages:

• Global and periodic cover of the terrestrial surface. Thanks to the use of satellites can be obtained repetitive images of most of the Earth, even of inaccessible areas by other means (polar or desert zones, for example.)
• Panoramic vision. Thus a single image of satellite NOAA includes 9 million square kilometers.
• Homogeneity in the taking of data. A great surface is detected by the same sensor and in a very small fraction of time.
• Information on nonvisible regions of the spectrum. The optical-electronic sensors facilitate images on nonaccessible areas with the conventional photography: infrared thermal medium and, etc. These bands of the spectrum provide a valuable information for environmental studies, registering imperceptible problems to the human eye.
• The digital format of the images makes agile its processing and reduces costs to integrate the results with another type of more conventional cartography.

HOME PAGE