From Ocean Teacher Library

Remote Sensing Measurements

Contents 1 Background 2 Measurement Categories 3 Instrument Categories 4 Additional Resources 5 Subsections of this Article 6 Information about this article 7 Contact

Background

Advances in marine science are tightly coupled to remote sensing developments. The principal global resource for current and planned satellite remote sensing work is the Earth Observing Handbook of the Committee on Earth Observing Satellites (CEOS). We cannot and do not attempt to compete with them in this area, and present direct links to some of their most important information below. Scientists interested in using remote sensing data can use these links to get a general introduction to the instruments that might provide the data they need for work in one of the "measurement category" areas. A related article on Marine and Climate Remote Sensing Missions will go further to provide information about which missions do or will carry sensors of interest, and usually some pointers to program websites

Measurement Categories

"This list is not comprehensive, but does include many key measurements of interest to the main user groups of Earth observation satellite data, and describes a significant part of the capability of current and planned instruments. This section identifies the satellite instruments which primarily contribute data for any particular measurement [listed below] and indicates the plans for future provision of that measurement over the next 15 years." [From CEOS Earth Observing Handbook]

• ATMOSPHERE
  • Aerosols
  • Atmospheric humidity fields
  • Atmospheric temperature fields
  • Atmospheric winds
  • Cloud particle properties and profile
  • Cloud type, amount and cloud top temperature
  • Liquid water and precipitation rate
  • Ozone
  • Radiation budget
  • Trace gases (excluding ozone)
• LAND
  • Albedo and reflectance
  • Landscape topography
  • Soil moisture
  • Vegetation
  • Surface temperature (land)
  • Multi-purpose imagery (land)
• OCEAN
  • Ocean colour/biology
  • Ocean topography/currents
  • Ocean surface winds
  • Surface temperature (ocean)
  • Ocean wave height and spectrum
  • Multi-purpose imagery (ocean)
• SNOW AND ICE
  • Ice sheet topography
  • Snow cover, edge and depth
  • Sea ice cover, edge and thickness
• GRAVITY AND MAGNETIC FIELDS
  • Gravity, magnetic and geodynamic measurements

Instrument Categories

"The following section gives a brief discussion of the different types of instruments which feature on Earth observation satellite missions" [From CEOS Earth Observing Handbook]

• Atmospheric chemistry instruments
• Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders
• Cloud profile and rain radars
• Earth radiation budget radiometers
• High resolution optical imagers
• Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR)
• Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave)
• Imaging microwave radars
• Lidars
• Multiple direction/polarisation instruments
• Ocean colour instruments
• Radar altimeters
• Scatterometers
• Gravity, magnetic field, and geodynamic instruments

Additional Resources

• Committee on Earth Observing Satellites (CEOS) - "This is the Home Page for the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and its members. CEOS membership encompasses the world's government agencies responsible for civil Earth Observation (EO) satellite programs, along with agencies that receive and process data acquired remotely from space.
• Earth Observing Handbook (CEOS, 2005) - "The report presents the main capabilities of satellite Earth observations, their applications, and a systematic overview of present and planned Earth observation satellite missions and their instruments."
• GlobWave Wave Data Handbook - Introduction to Ocean Waves; Descriptions of Altimeter and SAR measurements; Example applications of satellite wave data
  

Subsections of this Article

No subsections available

Information about this article

Short title: Remote Sensing Measurements

Description: none

Expertise level: beginner

Author: Murray.Brown

Approval status: approved

Approved by: Murray.Brown

Last change: 2011-9-22

Subsection of: Remote Sensing Data Concepts

Contact

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