remote sensing

The collection of information about the Earth or some other Solar-System body without direct contact of measuring instruments, especially from an orbiting satellite. High-resolution cameras, infrared detectors, and radar systems are used to survey the surface. The use of remote sensing from space to gather information about the Earth began soon after the start of the space age. NASA's first remote-sensing spacecraft was the Television and Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS–1) launched April 1960. TIROS–1 proved that satellites could be used to study Earth's weather patterns. The TIROS series was followed by many other orbiting monitors of the Earth's environment and resources, including the Landsat series (beginning in 1972), the Nimbus series (the last of which, Nimbus 7, launched 1978, discovered the first evidence of ‘holes' in the Earth's ozone layer caused by the destructive action of CFCs), and TOPEX/Poseidon, launched 1992, a US-French satellite that began to provide details about the links between the world's oceans and its climate. In 1999 NASA launched its Terra satellite, the flagship mission of its Earth Observing System (EOS), a series of low-inclination polar-orbiting satellites providing long-term global observations of the Earth's land surfaces, biosphere, oceans and atmosphere. Terra is one of more than 20 EOS missions scheduled to be launched between 1997 and 2010. Another is Aura, a satellite launched July 2004 to make detailed studies of the atmosphere. ESA's European Remote Sensing satellites, ERS–I, launched July 1991, and ERS–2, launched April 1995, have made continuous global observations of the oceans, polar caps, vegetation, etc., of the Earth. ERS–1 was taken out of service in 2000, but its successor was still operating in 2005. A third ESA satellite, Envisat, was launched into a Sun-synchronous orbit in March 2002. It is the largest Earth-observation spacecraft ever built and carries 10 sophisticated optical and radar instruments.

Collins Dictionary of Astronomy © Market House Books Ltd, 2006

remote sensing

[ri′mōt ′sens·iŋ]

(electricity)

Sensing, by a power supply, of voltage directly at the load, so that variations in the load lead drop do not affect load regulation.

(engineering)

The gathering and recording of information without actual contact with the object or area being investigated.

remote sensing

Deriving digital models of an area on the earth. Using special cameras from airplanes or satellites, either the sun's reflections or the earth's temperature is turned into digital maps of the area. In order to view the results, the data must be rendered by specialized image processing software. See digital elevation model.

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References in periodicals archive

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