Introduction and History of Space Remote Sensing

Abstract

This chapter introduces the subject of remote sensing both in terms of its technology and its many applications. Remote sensing via satellite has become a key service that is used in many civil applications such as agriculture, forestry, mining (and prospecting for many types of resources), map making, research in geosciences, urban planning, and even land speculation. Perhaps, one of the most vital uses of remote sensing today is related to disaster warning and recovery. The first use of remote sensing was essentially for military purposes and this remains the case today, and, thus, this chapter addresses these applications as well. Remote sensing, Earth observation, related geographical information systems (GIS), plus the interpretation and use of this type of data are today often referred to today as Geomatics.

This section starts with a history of remote sensing and then continues with a discussion of the technology and its applications. In a number of ways meteorological or weather satellites are essentially a specialized form of remote sensing satellites. Thus the history presented here covers not only what are considered remote sensing satellites but meteorological satellites as well. The meteorological satellites are discussed in much greater detail later in this handbook.