GIS/RS App.

To Civil Engineering (Geo info/Engg)

Lecture No. # 01
Introduction to Remote Sensing

Afed Ullah Khan, PhD

Lecturer
CED, UET Bannu

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

Learning objectives

o What is remote sensing?

o Types of resolution

o Image classification

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Acquiring information about a

surface without being in contact
with it.
 Recording reflected or emitted
energy and analyzing it.

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 What is remote sensing?

 Color
 Why do some objects appear
green, and other objects appear
red? Or blue?
 Reflect different amounts of
different colors.

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 What is remote sensing?

Radiation/Target interactions

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 What is remote sensing?

Only reflected light is recorded

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 What is remote sensing?

 Types of remote sensing

 Active Remote Sensing

 Passive Remote Sensing

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 What is remote sensing?

 Resolution

 The resolution of an image refers to the potential detail provided by the imagery.

 The efficiency (resolution) of a sensor used in remote sensing is expressed in terms

of how large (wide) of a target area is covered by a single pixel.

 A resolution of 30 m means that a single pixel covers an area of 30 square-meters.

 Usually, high resolution refers to a few meters or less,

 medium resolution refers to several dozen meters

 low resolution refers to several hundred meters or more.

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Resolution

 Spatial Resolution

 Temporal Resolution

 Radiometric Resolution

 Spectral Resolution

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Spatial Resolution

 Spatial Resolution refers to the size of the smallest feature that can be detected by a
satellite sensor or displayed in a satellite image.

Distance b/w objects

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 What is remote sensing?

Landsat 8 data from July 7, 2019 over Reykjavík, Iceland. Courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory.
PhD Thesis Pre-Defense
 What is remote sensing?

Spatial Resolution

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

Spatial Resolution

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

Spatial Resolution

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

Spatial Resolution

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

Spatial Resolution

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

Scale and Spatial Resolution

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 What is remote sensing?

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Temporal resolution

 Time interval between measurements

 How often sensor is able to “revisit” an area

 View same area repeatedly to detect changes

 e.g., spread of a forest fire, extent of flooding

 Clouds can affect results.

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

Orbit types

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 What is remote sensing?

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Sun-synchronous orbit

 Altitude of ~700 km

 Satellite moves N‐S, earth moves E‐W

 On each pass, a different area is sensed

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 KP LULC Map

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 What is remote sensing?

 KP LULC Map

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 What is remote sensing?

 Revisit time

 Landsat 7: 16 days

 Landsat 8: 16 days

 Offset by 8 days, so between the two, a location can be revisited every 8 days

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Geostationary orbit

 Altitude ~36,000 km

 Rotate at same speed as earth, so appear stationary

 e.g., weather, communication

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Radiometric resolution

 Radiometric resolution is the amount of information in each pixel, i.e. the number of
bits representing the energy recorded. Each bit records an exponent of power 2.

 A sensor with 8 bit resolution has 256 potential digital values (0-255) to store
information. Thus, the higher the radiometric resolution, the more values are
available to store information, providing better discrimination between even the
slightest differences in energy

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Radiometric resolution

 For example, when assessing water quality, radiometric resolution is necessary to

distinguish between subtle differences in ocean color.

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Radiometric resolution

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Radiometric resolution

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 What is remote sensing?

 Radiometric resolution

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Radiometric resolution

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 What can you identify?

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 What is remote sensing?

 What can you identify?

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 What is remote sensing?

 Landsat 8 (Landsat Data Continuity Mission)

 Landsat 7 measures the amount of reflected light on a scale of 0 to 255 (8 bits), while
LDCM will measure light on a scale of 0 to 4,095 (12 bits).

 This improvement will enable researchers to better characterize LULC on a global

scale.

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Spectral resolution

 Spectral resolution is the ability of a sensor to discern finer wavelengths, that is,
having more and narrower bands.

 Many sensors are considered to be multispectral, meaning they have between 3-10
bands.

 Sensors that have hundreds to even thousands of bands are considered to be

hyperspectral.

 The narrower the range of wavelengths for a given band, the finer the spectral
resolution.

 For example, the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) captures

information in 224 spectral channels

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Spectral resolution

 Spectral resolution refers to the number and dimension of specific wavelength

intervals of electromagnetic radiation that a sensor is capable of measuring.

 The portions (ranges) of the spectrum to which an instrument is sensitive are

referred to as its bands.

 Note: the resolution of A<C<B

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Spectral resolution

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Spectral resolution

Low resolution

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Spectral resolution

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Extend idea of “colour”

 Objects also reflect, transmit and absorb invisible light

 Different objects have different combinations

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Combinations of “colours”

above are Landsat 7 band numbers

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Combinations of “colours”

Six versions of the same location

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 What is remote sensing?

 Combinations of “colours”

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Spatial vs. spectral resolution

above are Landsat 7 band number

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Spectral signatures

 Measurements of spectral reflectance of a particular objects

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Spectral signatures

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Spectral signatures

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 What is remote sensing?

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 What is remote sensing?

 Summary of Resolution

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 What is remote sensing?

 Displaying multiband images

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Displaying “bands” in ArcMap

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Displaying “bands” in ArcMap

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Displaying “bands” in ArcMap

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Displaying “bands” in ArcMap

 Here’s a rundown of some common band combinations applied to Landsat 8,

displayed as a red, green, blue (RGB):

 https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/product/imagery/band-combinations-
for-landsat-8/

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Visually Interpreting Images

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 What does this cell represent?

 A remote sensor measures light reflected from a square area on the ground

 It doesn’t tell you if the square is covered in grass, or pavement, or water, it just gives
you a number

 You have to turn the data into information:

 Manually……………interpretation
 Automatically ………….classification

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Interpretation vs. Classification

 Interpretation

 Manual, using visual pattern recognition

 Your brain can recognize a clump of trees, but you then would have to manually trace
that and map it out

 Classification

 Automatic, using math and software

 Software recognizes number patterns, groups them and creates a thematic map, but
then you still have to identify what each theme represents

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Shape

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Size

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Tone

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Texture

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Pattern

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Shadow

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Association

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Image classification

 Goal:

 Automatically group cells into land cover classes

 Different land cover types have different combinations of numbers based on inherent
spectral reflectance properties
– Identify spectral pattern

 Create a thematic map from original data.

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Image classification

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Image classification

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Image classification

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Image classification

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Image classification

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Image classification

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Image classification

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Image classification

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Image classification

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Data Pathfinders
https://earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/pathfinders

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Types and Uses of Satellites

• Open Data Satellites
• Commercial Satellites
• Weather satellites
• Geodesy Satellites
• Ocean Satellites

• https://gisgeography.com/earth-satellite-list/

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Principal of remote sensing

• The source of remote sensing data is the electromagnetic radiations which
are emitted or reflected by the object, which then helps in their
identification and classification.

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Elements Involved in Remote Sensing

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Elements Involved in Remote Sensing

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Components of Remote Sensing

1. Platform
2. Sensors

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Components of Remote Sensing

1. Platform
• A platform is defined as the carrier for remote sensing sensors.
• There are three major remote sensing platforms:
• Ground-level platform (towers and cranes),
• Aerial platforms (Helicopters, low altitude aircraft, high altitude aircraft), and
• Spaceborne platforms (space shuttles, polar-orbiting satellites, and geostationary
satellites)

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Components of Remote Sensing

1. Platform

Ground-Based Platform  Airborne Platform Space-Based Platform

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Components of Remote Sensing

1. Sensors

It is a device that receives electromagnetic radiations and converts it into a signal

that can be recorded and displayed as either numerical data or an image.

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Basic Processes in Remote Sensing

• Data acquisition (energy propagation, platforms)

• Processing (conversion of energy pattern to images)
• Analysis (quantitative and qualitative analysis)
• Accuracy assessment (radiometric and geometric correction)
• Information distribution to users

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Basic Processes in Remote Sensing

• Data acquisition (energy propagation, platforms)

• Processing (conversion of energy pattern to images)
• Analysis (quantitative and qualitative analysis)
• Accuracy assessment (radiometric and geometric correction)
• Information distribution to users

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

 What is remote sensing?

 Basic Processes in Remote Sensing

Geometric correction

radiometric correction
PhD Thesis Pre-Defense
 What is remote sensing?

 Remote Sensing Applications

• Land Use Mapping

• Weather Forecasting
• Environmental Study
• Study of Natural hazards
• Resource exploration

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense

Thanks

PhD Thesis Pre-Defense