Introduction to

Remote Sensing

Rezaul Roni
MSc in Geoinformatics (ITC, the Netherlands), Executive MBA (BUP), MSc in Geography and Environment (JU)
Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Environment
Jahangirnagar University
georoni31@juniv.edu, Mob: 01716049335

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Introduction to Remote Sensing

What is Remote Sensing

History of Remote Sensing

Introduction to Satellite Image

Applications of Remote Sensing

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 What is Remote Sensing?

Remote sensing is the science of acquiring information about the

Earth's surface without actually being in contact with it.

Remote sensing is the observation and measurement of objects from a

distance, i.e. instruments or recorders are not in direct contact with objects
under investigation.

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 History of Remote Sensing
1609 - Invention of the telescope

Galileo

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 History of Remote Sensing
1859 - First aerial photographer
Gaspard Felix Tournachon, also known as Nadar

1862 - US Army balloon corp

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History of Remote Sensing
1903 - The Bavarian Pigeon Corps

1909 - Dresden International

Photographic Exhibition
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 History of Remote Sensing
1908 - First photos from an airplane

1914-1918 - World War I

First flight, Wright Bros., Dec. 1903

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 What is Remote Sensing?

How Remote Sensing Works

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 What is Remote Sensing?

Electromagnetic Radiation
Energy Source or Illumination (A)

An electrical field (E)

A magnetic field (M) oriented at right angles to the
electrical field.
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 What is Remote Sensing?

Electromagnetic Radiation
Wavelength
The wavelength is the length of one wave cycle
Frequency
Frequency refers to the number of cycles of a wave
passing a fixed point per unit of time.

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 EM RADIATION : Needs to Understand
2 Source
Sun
1 EM radiation

scattered
radiation**

Clouds Scattered Atmospheric

radiation* emission

Atmospheric transmitted Reflected Thermal emission

absorption radiation radiation

3Atmosphere 4 Reflection
Earth Reflection processes Emission processes
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 What is Remote Sensing?

Electromagnetic Radiation

Color Wavelength (nm)

Red 780 - 622
Orange 622 - 597
Yellow 597 - 577
Green 577 - 492
Blue 492 - 455
Violet 455 - 390

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What is Remote Sensing?

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 What is Remote Sensing?
Image and Data Acquisition

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Electromagnetic spectrum. What is Remote Sensing?

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 What is Remote Sensing?

Radiation-Target
Interaction with
the Target (C)

Absorption (A)
Transmission (T)
Reflection (R)

Reflection

Reflectance

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Factors affecting surface reflectance

• Absorption features (water, pigments, minerals).

• Surface roughness (lambertian or specular reflectance).
• Observation and illumination angles.

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 What is Remote Sensing?

Spectral Reflectance

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Factors affecting spectral signatures

(i) Solar elevation

(ii) Aspect
(iii) Slope
(iv) Atmosphere
(v) Phenology
(vi) Soil background
Types of reflections according to surface
roughness

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GREEN LEAF SPECTRAL REFLECTANCE

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Soil Reflectance Properties

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Factors affecting soil reflectance

• Soil Minerals.
• Organic matter.
• Iron oxides.
• Water content.
• Texture y structure.
• Observation and illumination angles.

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 Effects of surface roughness of soil
reflectance

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puffy crust
salty crust
50
non-saline, silty clay crust
cracked salty crust
Reflectance (%)

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mullido crust
ploughed field
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20

10

0
450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
Wavelength (nm)

Differences in land use - Physical compacity

(after Metternich, 2004)

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Factors affecting water reflectance

• Chlorophyll content:
– Absorption in the visible bands.
– Reflection in the NIR.
• Turbidity.
• Surface roughness.

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MODIS-Aqua image of South Florida, showing different
sediment concentrations in shallow waters.

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Differences in water turbidity near Manaos,
Brazil

(Source: http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/)
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Reflectance curves for different types of
snow and ice

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Thermal inertia for different land covers

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Atmospheric effects

• Absorption:
• Aerosols
• Gases (ozone, water vapor, CO2, etc.).
• Scattering:
• Aerosols
• Rayleight.
• Mie
• Non selective.
• Clouds.
• Emission.

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 Atmospheric windows suitable for Earth
observations from space
Atmospheric transmission

100

50

0
0,4 0,7 1 2 3 5 10 (...) 10.000 µm

(adapted from Lillesand and Kiefer, 2000)

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 What is Remote Sensing?

Sensors

Recording of Energy by the Sensor (D)

Passive sensors Active Sensors

Active sensors

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Remote Sensing Systems

Human eye
• Passive
{ Camera
Radiometer
Radar
• Active
{ Sonar
Laser

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PLATFORMS CARRY SENSORS!!

Sensing from 1 meter to 36,000 km

height

Sensors are mounted on Platforms:

• Ground based
• Airborne
• Spaceborne

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Cross -Track Scanners

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Along-Track (Push-Broom) Scanners

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Components of a Remote Sensing System
Energy Source

Remote Sensing
Platform
Atmosphere

’
Earth´s cover

VISUAL INTERPRETATION
Receiving System

End-users

DIGITAL PROCESSING

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Introduction to Satellite Image

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 Introduction to Satellite Image

Displaying an image

Band
Image data may include several bands of information.
Each band is a set of data file values for a specific
portion of the electromagnetic spectrum of reflected
light or emitted heat (red, green, blue, near-infrared,
infrared, thermal, etc.) or some other user-defined
information created by combining or enhancing the
original bands, or creating new bands from other
sources.
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Displaying
an image

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 Introduction to Satellite Image

Satellite Image
Pixels

Small equal-sized and shaped areas, or picture

elements.

DN (Digital Number)

The brightness of each area with a numeric value

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 Introduction to Satellite Image

Pixels

Landsat ETM+ 2003

PIXELS

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 Introduction to Satellite Image

Satellite Image

B 136
G 99
R 30

B 68
G 44
R 255 DN

B 51
G 0
R 5

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 Introduction to Satellite Image

Histogram of an image, the number of pixels for each value

31120
Histogram
Bagerhat

Patuakhali
Pirojpur
A histogram shows the distribution of colors in an image. For a
Number of Pixels

256 color image, it shows how many times a particular pixel

intensity occurred in that image.
Sundarban
Barguna

574

0
0 110 256 47
Brightness Range
 Introduction to Satellite Image

Satellite Image
Image Resolution
Resolution refers to the ability of a remote sensing system to
record and display fine details. Resolution are of four types

Spectral

Spatial

Temporal

Radiometric

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 Introduction to Satellite Image

Image Resolution Spectral

Number of bands
available

• Panchromatic
• Multispectral
• Hyperspectral

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 Introduction to Satellite Image

Image Resolution Spectral

Single Band 3 3 3 Multi Band 3 2 1 Multi Band 4 3 2 Multi Band 3 5 2

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Spatial Resolution

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 Introduction to Satellite Image

Image Resolution Temporal

Ability to collect imagery of the same area of the Earth's surface at

different periods of time is temporal resolution.
November
January
March

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 Introduction to Satellite Image

Image Resolution Temporal

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 Introduction to Satellite Image

Image Resolution Radiometric

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 Radiometric Resolution

• Number of Shades
or brightness levels at
a given wavelength

• Smallest change in
intensity level that can
be detected by the
sensing system

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 Introduction to Satellite Image

Satellite Image

Image Layer Type

Continuous Image
Term used to describe raster data layers that contain quantitative
and related values or a type of raster data that are quantitative
(measuring a characteristic) and have related, continuous values.

Thematic Image
Raster data that are qualitative and categorical. Thematic layers
often contain classes of related information, such as land cover, soil
type, slope, etc.

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Introduction to Satellite Image

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Satellite Platforms

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 QuickBird Satellite Sensor Characteristics

Launch Date October 18, 2001

Launch Vehicle Boeing Delta II
Vandenberg Air Force Base,
Launch Location
California, USA
Orbit Altitude 450 Km
Orbit Inclination 97.2°, sun-synchronous

Speed 7.1 Km/sec (25,560 Km/hour)

Equator Crossing Time 10:30 AM (descending node)

Orbit Time 93.5 minutes

1-3.5 days, depending on latitude
Revisit Time
(30° off-nadir)

Swath Width 16.5 Km x 16.5 Km at nadir

Metric Accuracy 23 meter horizontal (CE90%)

Digitization 11 bits
Pan: 61 cm (nadir) to 72 cm (25° off-
nadir)
Resolution
MS: 2.44 m (nadir) to 2.88 m (25° off-
nadir)

Pan: 450-900 nm
Blue: 450-520 nm
Image Bands Green: 520-600 nm
Red: 630-690 nm
Near IR: 760-900 nm 62
 About the SPOT-5 Satellite
Sensor
Launch Date May 3, 2002
Launch Vehicle Ariane 4
Guiana Space Centre, Kourou,
Launch Location
French Guyana
Orbital Altitude 822 kilometers
Orbital Inclination 98.7°, sun-synchronous

Speed 7.4 Km/second (26,640 Km/hour)

Equator Crossing Time 10:30 AM (descending node)

Orbit Time 101.4 minutes

Revisit Time 2-3 days, depending on latitude

Swath Width 60 Km x 60 Km to 80 Km at nadir

< 50m horizontal position accuracy

Metric Accuracy
(CE90%)
Digitization 8 bits

Pan: 2.5m from 2 x 5m scenes

Pan: 5m (nadir)
Resolution
MS: 10m (nadir)
SWI: 20m (nadir)

Pan: 480-710 nm
Green: 500-590 nm
Image Bands Red: 610-680 nm
Near IR: 780-890 nm
Shortwave IR: 1,580-1,750 nm
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 IKONOS Satellite System: Sensor Characteristics
24 September 1999 at Vandenberg
Launch Date
Air Force Base, California, USA

Operational Life Over 7 years

Orbit 98.1 degree, sun synchronous

Speed on Orbit 7.5 kilometers per second

Speed Over the Ground 6.8 kilometers per second

Revolutions Around the Earth 14.7, every 24 hours

Altitude 681 kilometers

0.82 meters panchromatic; 3.2 meters

Resolution at Nadir
multispectral

1.0 meter panchromatic; 4.0 meters

Resolution 26° Off-Nadir
multispectral

11.3 kilometers at nadir; 13.8

Image Swath
kilometers at 26° off-nadir

Equator Crossing Time Nominally 10:30 AM solar time

Revisit Time Approximately 3 days at 40° latitude

Dynamic Range 11-bits per pixel

Panchromatic, blue, green, red, near

Image Bands 65
IR
LANDSAT Satellite Sensor Characteristics

15 April 1999, at Vandenberg Air Force

Launch Date
Base in California
Spatial Resolution 30 meters
705 +/- 5 km (at the equator) sun-
Orbit
synchronous
Orbit Inclination 98.2 +/- 0.15
Orbit Period 98.9 minutes
Grounding Track Repeat Cycle 16 days (233 orbits)
Resolution 15 to 90 meters

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Geostationary Satellites

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 MTSAT-1R MTSAT-2
Satellite

Position 140 degrees East longitude 145 degrees East longitude

Observation Standby Operational

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Applications of Remote Sensing
Land Use & Land Cover
Agriculture
Forestry
Geology
Hydrology
Oceans & Coastal Monitoring
Meteorology
Geomorphology
And many many others
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Detecting and Monitoring Wildland Fires
Borneo

Arizona, June 2002

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Monitoring Sea Surface Temperature

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Global Water Vapor, July 2009

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Cloud Top temperatures

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Cloud Classification

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Cloud Top Pressure

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Monitoring Weather

GOES-8 Water Vapor

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Change Detection - Urban Sprawl

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 Open water flood area derived
Flood Monitoring from RADARSAT ScanSAR Wide
image, 23 July 2004

RADARSAT image 23 July 2004 80

 Flood Dynamics in Sarsa Thana, 2000
20 July 13 August 06 September 30 September 25 October

Sarsa Thana

20 July 13 August 06 September 30 September 25 October

Sarsa Thana

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Open water flooding Others RADARSAT ScanSAR Wide Images and derived flood maps
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