Lecture 3

Basics of remote sensing: Introductory survey

Objectives:
1. Types of platforms used for remote sensing.
2. Passive and active remote sensing.
3. Satellite platforms: orbits, resolutions, types of sensors.

Required reading:
G:1.1; 1.7; pp.395-398, 426-427

CCRS online tutorial: Chapter 1: Sections 1.1, 1.6;
Chapter 2: Sections 2.1-2.6:
http://www.ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca/ccrs/eduref/tutorial/indexe.html

Additional reading:

NASA online tutorial:
http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Intro/Part2_2.html

1. Types of platforms used for remote sensing:

Ground-based platforms: ground, vehicles and/or towers => up to 50 m

Airborne platforms: airplanes, helicopters, high-altitude aircrafts, balloons => up to 50 km
Spaceborne: rockets, satellites, shuttle => from about 100 km to 36000 km
Space shuttle: 250-300 km
Space station: 300-400 km
Low-level satellites: 700-1500 km
High-level satellites: about 36000 km

1
2. Passive and active remote sensing.
Passive sensors measure natural radiation emitted by the target material or/and radiation
energy from other sources reflected from the target.
Examples:
Passive microwave radiometer that detects naturally emitted microwave energy.
Radiometers that measure reflected (or backscattered) sun light from the atmosphere and
ocean.

Active sensors transmit their own signal and measure the energy that is reflected (or
scattered back) from the target material.
Examples:
Lidar (LIght Detection And Ranging)
Radar (RAdio Detection And Ranging)

Radar transmits a pulse and measures reflected echo (backscatter)

Structure of the course:

Passive remote sensing using scattering and extinction (Lectures 9-13)
Passive remote sensing using emission (Lectures 14-19)
Active remote sensing (Lectures 20-26)

2
3. Satellite platforms: orbits, resolutions, sensor types.

Satellites orbits:
Low-level (700-1500 km) Earth observation satellites (called LEO) fall into three
broad groups:
i). Equatorial orbiting satellites
ii). Polar orbiting satellite
iii). Oblique orbiting (or near-polar) satellites
• LEO satellites are often on sunsynchronous orbits. Sunsynchronous means that
the satellite remains fixed with respect to the sun with the earth rotating under the
satellite.

High-level (about 36000 km) satellites: geosynchronous satellites precess around the
Earth at rates related to the rotation of the Earth on its polar axes

Polar orbiting satellites:

Equatorial orbiting satellites, whose orbits are

within the plane of the Equator

Polar orbiting satellites, whose orbits are in the

plane of the Earth’s polar axis

3
Figure 3.1 Oblique orbiting (near-polar orbiting) satellites: Sun-synchronous orbits (each
3 hours)

• Ascending pass is when the satellite travels from south to north, and descending
when the satellite travels from north to south.
• Oblique orbiting satellites can be launched eastwards into direct (called prograde)
orbit (so called because the movement of such satellites is in the same direction as
the rotation of the Earth), or westwards into retrograde orbit.
• The inclination of a orbit is specified in terms of the angle between its ascending
track and the Equator.
• Prograde orbits regress while retrograde orbits precess with respect to the planes
of their initial orbits because the Earth is not a perfect sphere and it causes a
gyroscopic influence on satellites in oblique orbits.

4
Figure 3.2 Example of the ground track of a polar orbiting satellite.

• Swath is the area imaged on the surface by the sensor. Imaging swaths for
spaceborne sensors generally vary between tens and hundreds of kilometers wide.

Examples of near-polar orbiting satellites:

EOS TERRA: inclination=98.20
TOPEX/Poseidon (Topography Experiment for Ocean Circulation): inclination=660

Geosynchronous satellites:
Geostationary satellites (often called weather satellites) are “fixed” above a given point
on the Earth surface because their circular orbits above the equator have rotation period
equals to the earth’s rotation period.

Figure 3.3 Example of geostationary satellite coverage.

5
Figure 3.4 US geostationary satellites: GOES

Resolutions: spatial, spectral, radiometric, and temporal

Spatial resolution is often defined as the ability to distinguish between two closely
spaced objects on an image.

NOTE: No single definition for spatial resolution exists.

• Spatial resolution depends on the field of view (FOV), altitude and viewing angle
of a sensor.

NOTE: small pixel => large spatial resolution

6
 • The size of the pixel sets a lower limit on the spatial resolution.
• A measure of the size of the pixel is given by the Instantaneous Field of View
(IFOV)
Instantaneous Field of View (IFOV) is the solid angle through which a detector is
sensitive to radiation (units: mrad =10-3 rad)

Spectral resolution refers to the dimension and number of wavelength regions (or bands)
in the electromagnetic spectrum to which the sensor is sensitive.
• Based on the spectral resolution the sensors fall into the following broad groups:
broad-band, narrow-band, spectral and hyperspectral sensors

The narrower the bandwidth, the better the spectral resolution

Radiometric resolution is a measure of the sensitivity of a sensor to differences in the

intensity of the radiation measured the sensor.
• The finer the radiometric resolution of a sensor, the more sensitive it is to
detecting small differences in reflected or emitted energy.

Technical definition:
Radiometric resolution is a measure of how many grey levels are measured between pure
black and pure white.
• The radiometric resolutions is measured in bits: 1-bit system (21 = 2) measures
only two radiation levels; 2-bit system measures (22=4) four levels, etc.

7
Temporal resolution is a measure of how often data are obtained for the same area (i.e.,
how often an area can be revisited).
• The temporal resolution varies from hours for some systems to about 20 days to
others. High temporal resolution: daily or twice daily.

Figure 3.5. Example of the NOAA satellite time coverage

8

Types of sensors.
Sensor types: classification according to NASA

Scanning systems:
Cross-track scanners
Spin scanners
Along-track scanners
Side-scanning (or oblique scanners) (e.g., radar)

NOTE : see details in Sabins (1997): Chapter 1