Know about remote sensing; a tool for all

Science is about making life easy to live in by developing research and models that will actually help the world,remote sensing technology is a product of these research .

Remote sensing image

Brief History

Originally, remote sensing started in 1940’s when the picture of the ground was taken with a photo-camera by some balloonist, an Indian physicist and Pisharoth Rama Pisharoly who was regarded as the father of remote sensing (10 february,1909 -24 september,2002).

The origin of remote sensing can be traced to 1858 when Felix Tournachon (popularly known as NADAR) took the first and foremost aerial photograph from a balloon around Bievre valley, France. After so many times, nadar’s work (image) lost relevance as it no longer exist. Consequently, as at the current world status James Wallace image in 1860 has been considered as the oldest aerial photograph taken.It was further used in 1950 where Ms. Evelyn Pruitt (U.S.A. navy research officer) used the term remote sensing to describe this technique.

Recent development.

Between 1960-2010,remote sensing technology has experienced a drastic positive improvement with help of various researchers who ensured the technology advances. Initially, black and white aerial photographs were used not until this era where new techniques and technologies were invented, as a result of this,the focus shifted from previously existing techniques to a complex, easy-to-read,and comprehensive formats.In this era, satellite platforms were also imbibed into the system as to ensure wider view and also consistent monitoring of the land area compared to airplanes that was previously used. Remotely sensed images with very high spatial resolution of 10m or less became routinely available too, such images permits large scale topographic mapping and land use monitoring.

There have been several significant evolutionary steps in satellite remote sensing technology during 1990’s which includes the development of radar sensors, imaging spectrometers, high resolution sensors and also multi-view angle sensors. Some of these different type of sensors have already been flown on earth observation satellites. Others will be launched in the next 2-3yrs. Collectively those new techniques will provide a significantly enhanced capability for environmental monitoring besides creating new applications for remotes sensing. Imagery format shifted from analog to digital, digital is preferred because it displays and analyses images with computer aids. In 1999, the first commercial satellite which is called IKONOS was launched with very high resolution images. Whilst the original focus of remote sensing activity was the natural environment more recently the monitoring of human activities of human impacts on the landscape have become progressively more important.

DISCUSSION

Remote sensing image
The work of geologist would be doddle if the earth were not opaque and could be easily observed when looked down in the ground as they would literarily see the sky. Meteorologist can get information regarding atmospheric and weather pattern from sky from the ground. In fact not all locations are easily accessible physically, such as the sun, inner core of the earth due to its natural unfriendly features.
That gives rise to a mechanism that decipher to this social problem, Hence, the need of gathering information about an object without physical contact with the material or object under consideration. Some earth scientist described the phenomenon as REMOTE SENSING.

WHAT THEN IS REMOTE SENSING?

Remote sensing is the simple science or act of gathering information about any object from a distance basically from an aircraft or mounted on satellite. It’s simply the process of collecting information about an object or area without any physical contact with it. Satellites are preferred to aircraft images nowadays because satellites collect information consistently round the clock even when no man-power is available to operate it unlike aircraft that requires man-power whenever any image is to be taken. All object on earth emit a specific electromagnetic energy, remote sensing collect data by depicting the kind of energy which is emitted. Remote sensing can be either active or passive form
Passive: as the name implies, they detect external energy, they take into consideration natural energy which is reflected from earth surface. Common example is reflected sunlight.
Active: they detect internal energy, e.g. sensing the time taken for a reflected laser to return back to the sensor.

active image source

STEPS TO REMOTE SENSING OPERATIONS.

The steps are labelled A-G below
procedure image source: wikimedia commons
Energy source or illumination (A): it’s main source of the electromagnetic radiation that will be focused on the area of interest. Sensors that generate it energy are the active remote sensors while sensors that rely on external energy are the passive remote sensors. The passive remote sensor is the world commonly used type of remote sensor nowadays.
Platforms (B): the energy emitted from either active or passive sources reach a target through a platform such as atmosphere, cloud, satellite, space shutter, and aircrafts
Interaction with the target point(C): various targets have distinct manner they react to the incident electromagnetic radiation on them, some targets diffuse, some absorbs, reflects, and some refracted.
Detectors (D): when the energy has reached the target, it send reflectance value to the sensor which record them. Note that values of various object varies from another.
Transmission, reception, and processing (E): after object has been detected and recorded, they are process so as to annul any possible error that might occur. Examples are photographic, digital. Etc.
Interpretation and analysis (F): these images are then interpreted accordingly and critically analyzed.

Component image
Applications (G): the images can then be used for various purposes in various field such as academic institutions, researcher’s centers, engineering and other related organizations.

Why remote sensing?

Remote sensing is an important tool both in engineering and environmental monitoring.
• One important benefit of this technology is that the operation can’t be interrupted basically if the sensor is passively recording the electromagnetic energy which makes the technology more reliable.
• Remotely sensed data are easy to process and analyze fast with the aid of a computer.
• Largely area are covered at the same time in this operations too.
• It also give room for further map revision
• Remote sensing help hydrologist and environmentalist to detect flooded area and forest fire respectively which help to look for escape route when problem arises.

In summary, remote sensing makes it possible for geologist to derive data from inaccessible locations they may not go physically, the society and military have also benefitted from this technology too, some example of this adopted technologies are as follows, the Egyptians army use of chariot after lykossinvasion (CA 1670 bc), Chinese wheelbarrow invasion (ca 100bc) and the Persian development of postal service (ca 600bc) among many others.

Common application of remote sensing.

• Erosion and flood control scheme.
• Hazard assessment like earthquakes and hurricanes.
• Cartography (map making and measurement)
• Ocean resources management (monitoring ocean current system).
• Track sediment transport

Although we appreciate how our television remote control works,we dont seems to understand the mechanism behinds it operations, remote sensing might be expensive to manage when considering a small study area and need experts to interpret the images taken. The efficacy and impact of this technology cannot be overemphasized in various aspect of life.

REFERENCES.

for further personal research and study on remote sensing,i recommend the following remote sensing component
features of remote sensing
remote sensing history
history of remote sensing

Though, we appreciate how our television remote control works,we dont seems to understand the mechanism behinds it operations, remote sensing might be expensive to manage when considering a small study area and need experts to interpret the images taken. The efficacy and impact of this technology cannot be overemphasized in various aspect of life.

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