Remote Sensing
Audience #1 is a group of high school students being introduced to the term for the first time.
Have you ever seen the film Enemy of the State? How about The Bourne Identity, or any recent James Bond movie? All of these movies have something in common: they use striking graphics in the form of maps or satellite pictures – all the product of remote sensing. Remote sensing is a method by which scientists gather information about the surface of the earth from a distance. Remote Sensing can be traced back as far as the 1860s, and has since developed into the primary method of data gathering from the earth’s surface. The most important things to know about remote sensing are why it’s needed, how it works, and what it’s used for.
Humans have used maps since ancient times; they have been the tool of explorers, politicians, armies, and navigators. Throughout recorded history, we can see endless examples of maps being used to depict a part of the earth, giving people a visual illustration of their surroundings. While maps are useful in finding out where a place is, they are merely a representation. In the late 19th century, a French photographer named Felix Tournachon decided to use a recent invention, the camera, to create a new kind of map. Using a hot-air balloon, Tournachon hoisted his camera into the sky and took a photograph of the ground. What resulted was the first known remotely sensed image of the earth’s surface, a simple photograph showing a birds-eye view of the photographer’s surroundings (NASA). The advent of this new technology revolutionized not only map-making, but the way humans see the earth. Where once there were only drawings of where a place is, now it was possible to not only see where a place is,...
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...gement, carbon management, and disaster management (39).
Works Cited
NASA's Earth Observing System. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. .
This NASA website has a lot of information on the EOS, including a definition of its mission statement.
Oxford English Dictionary. OED Online. Web. 14 Mar. 2010.
Definition for Remote Sensing
Parkinson, Claire L. Earth Science Reference Handbook. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2006. Print.
This publication is an extensive guide to NASA’s Earth science program. It includes information about satellite missions and other examples of applied remote sensing.
The Remote Sensing Tutorial. Web. 20 Mar. 2010. .
Information is given on this page about the history of remote sensing, including the first recorded incidences.
Ken Jennings was a map nerd from a young age himself, you will not be surprised to learn, even sleeping with an old creased atlas at the side of his pillow, most kids his age were cuddling with a trusted blanket- Jennings was not. As he travels the world meeting people of kindred spirits--map librarians, publishers, geocachers, and the engineers behind google maps. Now that technology and geographic unknowing is increasingly insulting us from the space and land around us, we are going to be needing these people more than ever. Mapheads are the ones who always know exactly where they are and...
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University of Colorado, Boulder, August 11, 2003, NASA funds Colorado University at Boulder study of changes in Earth’s glacier systems in Ascribe Science News Service: pNa, p 1.
The panel has held a number of full meetings and numerous subpanel and individual member meetings, and has submitted three written status reports to the NASA Administrator. Although NASA has not yet formally responded to these status reports, actions have been taken to implement most of the committee recommendations. NASA has held several meetings with the committee to discuss and review the status of the response to the recommendations. The NRC membership and a summary of the panel responsibilities are provided in Appendix
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The map presented is a map of California. The map shows roads, highways, regions of water, islands, street names, and landmarks. The map is from 2016. It was produced by Color-Art. INC. If I were to use this map in class I believe that it would fit into chapter 1 (Basic concepts). In chapter one we talk about GIS( Geographic information system) which is a system that layers sections for a map, in the map shown it must've used a GIS, because they would start out with the land mass, then the next layer would be the highways, then the roads, and finally the street names and landmarks. Chapter one also talks about scale,the scale on the map is one inch=.85 miles. Finally, the chapter talks about projections, the map shows is a Mercator projection.
Kinard, William H. "Overview." Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) Archive System. NASA Langley Research Center, 29 Oct. 2007. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
The data was taken in order to assist scientists in understanding better about things like an asteroid near Earth, such as their size, density, makeup, rotation, and more. Information such as this can help in forming a possible planetary defense against an asteroid near
United States Geologic Survey. USGS: Your Source for Science You Can Use. Ed. Marcia McNutt. The United States Department of the Interior, 2000. Web. 20 June 2010. .
Historical geographer JB Harley wrote an essay on Map Deconstruction in 1989, in which Harley argues that a map is more than just a geographical representation of an area, his theory is that we need to look at a map not just as a geographical image but in its entire context. Harley points out that by an examination of the social structures that have influenced map making, that we may gain more knowledge about the world. The maps social construction is made from debate about what it should show. Harley broke away from the traditional argument about maps and examined the biases that govern the map and the map makers, by looking at what the maps included or excluded. Harley’s “basic argument within this essay is that we should encourage an epistemological shift in the way we interpret the nature of cartography.” Therefore Harley’s aim within his essay on ‘Deconstructing the Map’ was to break down the assumed ideas of a map being a purely scientific creation.
GPS Orbit. N.d. Government of United States of America, U.S.A. Space Segment. Web. 1 Jan.
Geographers plan new communities, decide where new highways should be placed, and establish evacuation plans. Computerized mapping and data analysis is known as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a new frontier in geography. Spatial data is gathered on a variety of subjects and input onto a computer. GIS users can create an infinite number of maps by requesting portions of the data to plot.
...regarded GPS – an indispensable part of GIS. Discussions on cartographic principles, commercial GIS software programs, satellite images, aerial photos, and geodatabases are some of the other conspicuous omissions in this book. There is an inconsistency in the depth of topics explored; for example map projections are explored in great depth, while vector topology is merely glossed over. These omissions and inconsistencies would in my opinion make this book marginally less beneficial to all the three audiences together. However, there is something for all them; structure for engineers, equations for engineers and students, and GIS concepts for students, engineers and users. This book will therefore be undeniably valuable if used to complement the material in some of the other fundamental GIS books in the discipline. It has merits, but there is room for improvement.