This book presents relevant and contemporary research on the remote sensing of landscapes, agriculture & forestry, geomorphology, coasts & oceans, natural hazards and wild habitats. It highlights the application of remote sensing in understanding natural processes and oceanic features, as well as in creating mapping inventories of water resources across different spatial and temporal scales. Recent advances in hyperspectral imaging and high spatial resolution offer promising techniques for exploring various aspects related to the fruitful and cost-effective monitoring of large-scale environments. In the field of forestry and agriculture, the book addresses topics such as terrain analysis, forest management, updating current forest inventories, and vegetation cover type discrimination. It also elaborates delineation of various geo-morphological features of the earth’s surface and natural disasters, and includes a special section on the remote sensing of wild habitats. Readers working in interdisciplinary sectors engaged in remote-sensing-based research benefit from the techniques presented.

Remote sensing has witnessed a renaissance as new sensor systems, data collection capabilities and image processing methodologies have expanded the technological capabilities of this science into new and important applications areas. Perhaps nowhere has this trend been more evident than in the study of earth environments. Within this broad application area remote sensing has proven to be an invaluable asset supporting timely data gathering at a range of synoptic scales, facilitating the mapping of complex landscapes and promoting the analysis of environmental process. Yet remote sensing’s contribution to the study of human/environmental interaction is scattered throughout a rich and diverse literature spanning the social and physical sciences, which frustrates access to, and the sharing of the knowledge gained through, these recent advances, and inhibits the operational use of these methods and techniques in day to day environmental practice, a recognized gap that reduces the effectiveness of environmental management programs. The objective of this book is to address this gap and provide the synthesis of method and application that is currently missing in the environmental science, re-introducing remote sensing as an important decision-support technology.

The result of a workshop bringing together an international advisory board of experts in science, satellite technologies, industry innovations, and public policy, this book addresses the current and future roles of satellite Earth observations in solving large-scale environmental problems. The book showcases the results of engaging distinct communities to enhance our ability to identify emerging problems and to administer international regimes created to solve them. It also reviews the work of the Policy and Earth Observation Innovation Cycle (PEOIC) project, an effort aimed at assessing the impact of satellite observations on environmental policy and to propose a mission going forward that would launch an "innovation cycle". The achievements of such a mission would feed back to innovations in next-generation observation technology, thus contributing to global policy demand for policy-relevant information. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

The following listing represents a survey and a short description of 'Earth Observing Mis sions' in alphabetical order. The listing in Part A considers completed-, operational-as well as planned missions on an international scale (Earth observations from space know no na tional boundaries). A look into past activities is important for reasons of heritage, context and of perspective. The document is intended for all who want to keep track of missions and sensors in the fast -growing field of Earth observations. There cannot be any claim to com pleteness, although a considerable effort was made to collect and integrate all known mis sions and sensors into this book. Earth observation by remote sensing changes our view and perception of the world. We be gin to realize the global character of remote sensing, its multidimensional and complemen tary nature, its vast potential to many disciplines, its importance to mankind as a whole. Re mote sensing permits for the first time in history a total system view of the Earth. The view from space toward Earth has brought about sweeping revisions in the Earth sciences, in par ticular in such fields as meteorology, oceanology, hydrology, geology, geography, forestry, agriculture, geodynamics, solar-terrestrial interactions, and many others.

Earth science is evolving into Earth system science, changing from a discipline-specific premise to an interdisciplinary endeavor. Increased awareness of human dependence and impact upon the environment has made global change research one of the most pressing policy issues facing decision makers today. This book presents an overview of past, present, and future satellite missions and programs and their sensor complements. An effort has been made to show to some extent the scale and nature of existingnational and international activities and operations in this context. Text and illustrations are intended as a guide and roadmap to everyone interested in the wide field of Earth observation. In particular, the book may serve as a reference, or give reasonable inputs, on the following subjects: Programmatic planning on all levels, planning for the required infrastructure, exisiting and planned operational service provision, data utilization and exploitation.

This volume addresses the physical foundation of remote sensing. The basic grounds are presented in close association with the kinds of environmental targets to monitor and with the observing techniques. The book aims at plugging the quite large gap between the thorough and quantitative description of electromagnetic waves interacting with the Earth's environment and the user applications of Earth observation. It is intended for scientifically literate students and professionals who plan to gain a first understanding of remote sensing data and of their information content.

A balanced review of differing approaches based on remote sensing tools and methods to assess and monitor biodiversity, carbon and water cycles, and the energy balance of terrestrial ecosystem. Earth Observation of Ecosystem Services highlights the advantages Earth observation technologies offer for quantifying and monitoring multiple ecosystem functions and services. It provides a multidisciplinary reference that expressly covers the use of remote sensing for quantifying and monitoring multiple ecosystem services. Rather than exhaustively cover all possible ecosystem services, this book takes a global look at the most relevant remote sensing approaches to estimate key ecosystem services from satellite data. Structured in four main sections, it covers carbon cycle, biodiversity, water cycle, and energy balance. Each section contains a review of conceptual and empirical methods, techniques, and case studies linking remotely sensed data to the biophysical variables and ecosystem functions associated with key ecosystem services. The book identifies relevant issues and challenges of assessment, presents cutting-edge sensing techniques, uses globally implemented tools to quantify ecosystem functions, and presents examples of successful monitoring programs. Covering recent developments undertaken on the global and national stage from Earth observation satellite data, it includes valuable lessons and recommendations and novel ways to improve current global monitoring systems. The book delineates the use of Earth observation data so that it can be used to quantify, map, value, and manage the valuable goods and services that ecosystems provide to societies around the world.