Most readers have perhaps gone through a phase of identifying hometown locations on Google Maps. For many, spending time browsing through familiar streets and stores from a bird’s eye view may be an immersive experience. And then the excitement may fizzle out.

For me, as a geographer who uses remotely sensed information for research and education, the excitement never ends. Remote sensing is simply a geographic information tool that provides information about earth features sensed from air or space. We can now acquire information beyond what our mere eyes can see. We can mix and match multiple sets of reflected or emitted radiation captured from features, and draw meaning.

Extracting meaningful information demands digital analysis and careful interpretation – a science and art. I study the Brazilian tropical forests – specifically addressing issues measuring leaf area from satellite images. Measuring the leaf area of a tree helps in estimating the amount of atmospheric carbon potentially sequestered by that tree. It is obviously impossible to measure the area of every tree in the forest, and remote sensing provides the solution.

Air and satellite-based collection of geographic information aids in a wide range of applications such as environmental monitoring, vegetation and plankton measurements, urban sprawl, atmospheric observations, water pollution, soils, mineralogy, terrain, etc. It offers a unique perspective of large areas that may not be accessible or pragmatic for study otherwise.  Students can learn more by taking our fundamental course in remote sensing.

ASTER image of Santarém, Brazil: RGB=Green Band, Infrared, and Red