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Description

The module will provide an introduction to the basic concepts and principles of remote sensing. It will include 3 components: i) radiometric principles underlying remote sensing: electromagnetic radiation; basic laws of electromagnetic radiation; absorption, reflection and emission; atmospheric effects; radiation interactions with the surface, radiative transfer; ii) assumptions and trade-offs for particular applications: orbital mechanics and choices; spatial, spectral, temporal, angular and radiometric resolution; data pre-processing; scanners; iii) time- resolved remote sensing including: RADAR principles; the RADAR equation; RADAR resolution; phase information and SAR interferometry; LIDAR remote sensing, the LIDAR equation and applications.

The course aims to:

• Provide knowledge and understanding of the fundamental concepts, principles and applications of remote sensing, particularly the electromagnetic spectrum – what it is, how it is measured, and what it tells us;
• Provide examples of applications of principles to a variety of topics in remote sensing, particularly related to climate and environment
• Develop a detailed understanding of the fundamental trade-offs in the design and applications of remote sensing tools: spatial, spectral, orbital etc.
• Introduce new technologies, missions and opportunities, including ground-based sensing, lidar at multiple scales, radar, UAVs, new science and commercial missions, open data and the tools that are emerging to exploit these opportunities;
• Introduce the principles of the radiative transfer problem that underpins most remote sensing measurements and how it is modelled and solved; applications of radiative transfer modelling to terrestrial vegetation;
• Introduce students to wider remote sensing organisations, policy and careers through invited seminars from professionals in the field, including former RSEM students.

Sessions - all delivered by Professor Disney unless specified.

• Introduction to remote sensing
• Radiation principles, EM spectrum, blackbody
• EM spectrum terms, definitions and concepts
• Radiative transfer principles and assumptions
• Spatial, spectral resolution and sampling
• Pre-processing chain, ground segment, radiometric resolution, scanners; poster discussion
• Active remote sensing: LIDAR – principles and applications
• Active remote sensing: RADAR –principles and applications
• New missions and technologies including LIDAR, UAVs, Copernicus etc.
• Application discussions around assessed posters

Third year undergraduate students selecting the module via the FHEQ Level 6 route would usually be expected to have taken GEOG0027 Remote Sensing (2nd year). It is possible to do without but you should consult Prof. Disney in the first instance on this.

Mode of study

In person

Useful pre-requisite knowledge

While there are no specific pre-requisites for the module, it contains basic physics and elementary maths. The maths included is GCSE-level – at most some simple geometry and algebra – and forms only a small part of the content. The module caters for students from a wide variety of backgrounds and experience has shown that students from less quantitative backgrounds typically cope fine. If you have any doubts about this aspect, by all means contact Prof. Disney and he can discuss this with you in relation to your background.

Transferrable career skills developed in the module

• Critical thinking: ability to assess data and ideas
• Communication: academic writing, through guided reading and application discussions
• Communication: conveying written ideas to non-experts, via the application discussions and assessed poster
• Presentation skills: via the assessed poster session
• Statistical / quantitative analysis: introduction to simple physical principles
• GIS / spatial data: understanding important assumptions underpinning spatial data capture, display and presentation.

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