A Short History of Remote Sensing

Overview

Although Remote sensing is not considered to exist before flight people always had the interest in what they can’t see ore wanting to see objects from a different angle or height. Even if they had to climb a mountain to do so.

References

Baumann PR. (2009). HISTORY OF REMOTE SENSING, SATELLITE IMAGERY,
PART II. [online] http://employees.oneonta.edu/baumanpr/geosat2/rs%20history%20ii/rs-history-part-2.html

Encyclopaedia of Britannica. (2015). Nazca Lines. Encyclopedia Britannica. [online] https://www.britannica.com/place/Nazca-Lines

Schwartz N. (2020). History of Remote Sensing, Lecture Notes. Universaty of British Columbia Canada. Available at: https://ibis.geog.ubc.ca/courses/geog373/lectures/Handouts/lecture02.pdf

Laffly D. (2020). A Brief History of Remote Sensing. TORUS 2 – Toward an Open Resource Using Services: Cloud Computing for Environmental Data, Laffly D (Ed.). ISTE Ltd. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781119720553

Overview

What we would consider modern Remote Sensing started when the flight started and I don’t mean the airplane. We will look at some of the highlights of this period.

References

Baumann, PR. (2009). HISTORY OF REMOTE SENSING, SATELLITE IMAGERY,
PART II. [online] http://employees.oneonta.edu/baumanpr/geosat2/rs%20history%20ii/rs-history-part-2.html

Moore GK. (1979). What is a picture worth? A history of remote sensing. Hydrol Sci Bull 24:477–485. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667909491887

Roy PS, Behera MD. & Srivastav SK. (2017). Satellite Remote Sensing: Sensors, Applications and Techniques. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., India, Sect. A Phys. Sci. 87, 465–472. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40010-017-0428-8

Overview

With the introduction of powered flight there was more control of where the photographer and the camera when. The advantage of this is that photographic surveys could be made in regular lines and an area could be systematically covered. To provide a better base for mapping.

References

Baumann PR. (2009). HISTORY OF REMOTE SENSING, SATELLITE IMAGERY,
PART II. [online] http://employees.oneonta.edu/baumanpr/geosat2/rs%20history%20ii/rs-history-part-2.html

Watts AC, Ambrosia VG, Hinkley EA. (2012). Unmanned Aircraft Systems in Remote Sensing and Scientific Research: Classification and Considerations of Use. Remote Sensing 4(6):1671-1692. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs4061671

Overview

Space access give us a more stable platform and image coverage could began to expand. Now areas inaccessible for aircraft could be covered by satellite. Again, military and civilian interests bested the development of sensors and satellite platforms.

References

Baumann PR. (2009). HISTORY OF REMOTE SENSING, SATELLITE IMAGERY,

PART II. [online] http://employees.oneonta.edu/baumanpr/geosat2/rs%20history%20ii/rs-history-part-2.html

Cracknell AP. (2018). “The development of remote sensing in the last 40 years.” : 8387–8427

Madry S. (2013). Introduction and history of space remote sensing scott. In: Handbook of satellite applications, pp 865–933. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7671-0

FIGURE 4: Stereo panoramic camera system used on KH-4A missions. (Baumann, PR. (2009))

FIGURE 5: Satellite capsule being captured. (Baumann, PR. (2009))

Overview

Although drones are technically ‘powered aircraft it is unmanned and remotely controlled. The first droned flaw in the First World War, but in the early 2000 it really took off. This is currently the newest chapter in the history especially due to the small size and ease of operation. Now any one can practice remote sensing even if they don’t recognize it.

References

Baumann PR. (2009). History of Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Part II. [online] http://employees.oneonta.edu/baumanpr/geosat2/rs%20history%20ii/rs-history-part-2.html

Cracknell AP. (2018). “The development of remote sensing in the last 40 years”: 8387–8427

Xiang T, Xia G & Zhang L. (2016). Mini-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Based Remote Sensing: Techniques, applications, and prospects, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 29-63, Sept. 2019, doi: 10.1109/MGRS.2019.2918840.

Xue Li, Baosong Xiong, Zhaode Yuan, Kefeng He, Xiaoli Liu, Zhumei Liu & Zhaoqing Shen (2020) Evaluating the Potentiality of Using Control-free Images from a Mini Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and Structure-from-Motion (SfM) Photogrammetry to Measure Paleoseismic Offsets, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 42:7, 2417-2439, DOI: 10.1080/01431161.2020.1862434

Image Source: IVM Royal Flying Corps In The First World War: https://media.iwm.org.uk/loris/331/745/large_000000.jpg/full/865,/0/default.jpg