Types of remote sensing

Sensor description

Example of imaging sensors

Resolution

Limitations

Application in agriculture

Other applications

1.    Optical Imaging

Single channel detector sensitive to broad

IKONOS Pan

Spatial: 1 m Spectral: 1

• Unlike microwave

• Precision farming

• Highly detailed land use discrimination, urban

a.    Panchromatic

wavelength range produce black and white imagery

SPOT Pan

band Temporal: 1-3 days
Spatial: 10 m Spectral: 1 band Temporal: 1-26 days

remote sensing, acquisition of cloud free image using optical bands is impossible because of its short wavelength that cannot penetrate clouds and rain

• Property damage control and verification of crop damage, e.g., drought and hail.
• Farm planning, precision farming

mapping, natural resources and natural disasters mapping, environmental planning, land registration, public health, biodiversity conservation, coastal monitoring, homeland security.
• Urban planning, feature and asset mapping, land use mapping

b.  Multispectral 1.    Optical Imaging

Multichannel detector with a few spectral bands. Sensitive to radiation with narrow wavelength band. The image contains brightness and color information of the targets.
Imaging sensor has many more spectral

Landsat MSS Landast TM
SPOT HRV-XS

Spatial: 50-80 m Spectral: 5 bands Temporal: 18 days
Spatial: 25 m Spectral: 7 bands Temporal: 16 days
Spatial: 20 m Spectral: 3

• Resolution tradeoff: High spatial resolution associated with low spectral resolution.
• Multi, super and hyper

• General vegetation inventories and classification
• Discrimination of vegetation types and vigor, plant and soil moisture measurement, Cropping pattern mapping, chlorophyll absorption, biomass survey, plant heat stress
• Vegetation mapping and

• Environmental monitoring, land use mapping and planning, forest mapping, statistical land-use survey global-change, urban area mapping, detection of silt-water flowing and landscape analysis.
• Water penetration, dif­ferentiation of snow and ice landscape analysis, lineament detection, litho-logical classification, urban environment assessment, delineation of water bodies, hydrothermal mapping.
• Urban mapping, forestry mapping and planning,

c. Superspectral

channels (typically >10) than a multispectral sensor. The bands have narrower bandwidths that capture finer spectral characteristics of the targets.

KOOS MS MODIS

bands Temporal: 1-26 days
Spectral: 4 bands Temporal: 1-3 days
Spatial: 250,500,1000 m Spectral: 36 bands Temporal: 1-2 days

spectral have resolution trade off: Sensors with high multispectral resolution can only offer low spatial resolution.

monitoring, soil erosion, agricultural boundary detection,
• Precision farming, vegetation mapping, disease detection
• Drought detection, vegetation monitoring and forecasting

land use and land cover discrimination, maritime and coastal management, resource stewardship monitoring, habitat supply planning, wildfire mapping, landslide and mudflow detection, and rapid urban change.
• Environmental analysis, land management, urban growth mapping and updating, disaster mitigation and monitoring Highly detailed land use discrimination • Atmospheric temperature measurement, ozone/cloud/ atmospheric properties, ocean color, phytoplankton, biogeochemistry, land cover mapping, land use planning land cover characterization and change detection.