In today's lecture I will go over the goals of the course and present a brief overview of remote sensing.

Remote sensing was commercialized long before GIS became a mainstream technology, but it was not until the 1990's that remote sensing truly took off. GISystems require volumes of data, and data quickly becomes out-of-date. Thus, remote sensing has provided to GIS a means of acquiring up-to-date data for large geographic regions at relatively low cost. In particular, when working in fields such as resource management, regional planning, oceanography, disaster management and, increasingly, urban development, you will find that remotely sensed data is a 'core' dataset. Thus, a GIS analyst should have a fundamental understanding of remote sensing, given the synergies possible between the two fields.

There are many sites devoted to remote sensing. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has produced a useful tutorial that covers most of the fundamental concepts involved in satellite image interpretation and analysis. The Canadian Centre for Remote Sensing also has a number of tutorials.

This site has some very insightful interactive tools and overall discussions on the use of remote sensing (especially for land classification) and I highly recommend you review its content: The American Museum of Natural History's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation Remote Sensing and GIS.

There is an ever-growing number of satellites collecting data that can be used in a GIS environment. For a comprehensive list, check out this list provided by Dundee University. A listing of many of the satellite names is provided on this FAQ site. A listing of many recent and upcoming satellites. A magazine that covers remote sensing.

A short video highlighting some of the global products produced using remote sensing. A video illustrating the multi-scale nature of remote sensing projects:

Text: Chapter 1: Introduction to earth observation by remote sensing

A comprehensive but somewhat out-dated review of remote sensing was produced by of Dr. Nicholas Short in 2006. A copy of the tutorial has been preserved by the Federation of American Scientists, and is available here. Although it is some dated, in the review Dr. Short does cover ALL of the important elements of remote sensing, and since the PRINCIPLES of remote sensing do not change, even as the TECHNOLOGY advances, his review is still a valuable resource. If you find that the explanations provided in your text, and in the class are not sufficient for you, I strongly suggest that you review the relevant section in Dr. Short's review as it may provide the additional detail / the alternative perspective that may help you comprehend the material better.