Towards a coherent remote sensing data policy

Access to space-based remote sensing data is critical for Earth science and the study of global change. This article summarizes a variety of US government Earth science data policies and problems. The authors examine current efforts to develop data policies for the next generation of US remote sensing programmes, noting likely problems based on past experiences. They argue that the goal of US Earth science data policy should be to provide the widest possible dissemination of data. Setting such a goal permits the development of a simple, coherent data policy that serves scientific, commercial and US government interests.     

Earth remote sensing as an effective tool for the development of advanced innovative educational technologies

Current educational system is facing a contradiction between the fundamentality of engineering education and the necessity of applied learning extension, which requires new methods of training to combine both academic and practical knowledge in balance. As a result there are a number of innovations being developed and implemented into the process of education aimed at optimizing the quality of the entire educational system. Among a wide range of innovative educational technologies there is an especially important subset of educational technologies which involve learning through hands-on scientific and technical projects. The purpose of this paper is to describe the implementation of educational technologies based on small satellites development as well as the usage of Earth remote sensing data acquired from these satellites. The increase in public attention to the education through Earth remote sensing is based on the concern that although there is a great progress in the development of new methods of Earth imagery and remote sensing data acquisition there is still a big question remaining open on practical applications of this kind of data. It is important to develop the new way of thinking for the new generation of people so they understand that they are the masters of their own planet and they are responsible for its state. They should desire and should be able to use a powerful set of tools based on modern and perspective Earth remote sensing. For example NASA sponsors “Classroom of the Future” project. The Universities Space Research Association in United States provides a mechanism through which US universities can cooperate effectively with one another, with the government, and with other organizations to further space science and technology, and to promote education in these areas. It also aims at understanding the Earth as a system and promoting the role of humankind in the destiny of their own planet. The Association has founded a Journal of Earth System Science Education. Authors describe an effective model of educational technology developed in the Center for Earth Remote Sensing of Bauman Moscow State Technical University and based on scientific and educational organizations integration in the field of applied studies. The paper also presents how students are being trained to acquire and process satellite imagery data from Terra and Aqua satellites. It also reveals the results of space monitoring for Russia's ecologically complex regions conducted by Bauman Moscow State Technical University students in cooperation with specialists from the Laboratory for Aerospace Methods of Moscow State University named after M. Lomonosov.     

Remote sensing technologies for space missions in the second half of the nineties' decade

The future missions of the National Aeronautics and Space administration (NASA) directed at solar system exploration, astrophysical, planetary and Earth Sciences observations will require advanced capabilities for acquiring data from space platforms. For example, NASA's terrestrial observation program is confronted by a range of challenging and important new problems derived from advances in the Earth Sciences over the past twenty years. New observational approaches appear promising for solving older problems which will benefit meteorology, agriculture, mineralogy, and geodynamics. Furthermore, many of the problems which space observations may help to solve are inherently interdisciplinary of the above areas. Although much is known about the Earth, the unifying concepts are still to be established and remote sensing from space will continue to be a vital experimental tool.     

The use of remote sensing to support the application of multilateral environmental agreements

There is a growing realisation of the increasingly varied and interesting possibilities for the use of Earth observation data to ensure compliance with international obligations generally, and treaty obligations in particular. Most examinations of the application of Earth observation data to monitoring states’ compliance with international obligations focus on the environmental sector. This paper proposes the use of remote sensing satellites for the support of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), especially land monitoring MEAs such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) and the Kyoto Protocol (1997). It discusses the uses of remote sensing for treaty implementation or enforcement in general, and the admissability of satellite imagery as legal proof, before examining how Earth observation-derived data could be of benefit to specific MEAs. As sensors become increasingly sophisticated the use of remote sensing in this area should grow but it needs to be supported by its more widespread legal recognition as proof.     

CHEOS Major Special Project Promotes Development of Chinese Commercial Remote Sensing Cameras

High resolution remote sensing data has been applied in many fields such as national security, economic construction and in the daily life of the general public around the world, creating a huge market. Commercial remote sensing cameras have been developed vigorously throughout the world over the last few decades, resulting in resolutions down to 0.31 m. In 2010, the Chinese government approved the implementation of the China High-resolution Earth Observation System(CHEOS) Major Special Project, giving priority to development of high resolution remote sensing satellites. More than half of CHEOS has been constructed to date and 5 satellites operate in orbit. These cameras have different characteristics. A number of innovative technologies have been adopted, which have led to camera performance increasing in leaps and bounds. The products and the production capability enables the remote sensing technical level to increase making it on a par with Europe and the US.     

Earth observation from space – The issue of environmental sustainability

Remote sensing scientists work under assumptions that should not be taken for granted and should, therefore, be challenged. These assumptions include the following:1. Space, especially Low Earth Orbit (LEO), will always be available to governmental and commercial space entities that launch Earth remote sensing missions.2. Space launches are benign with respect to environmental impacts.3. Minimization of Type 1 error, which provides increased confidence in the experimental outcome, is the best way to assess the significance of environmental change.4. Large-area remote sensing investigations, i.e. national, continental, global studies, are best done from space.5. National space missions should trump international, cooperative space missions to ensure national control and distribution of the data products.At best, all of these points are arguable, and in some cases, they're wrong. Development of observational space systems that are compatible with sustainability principles should be a primary concern when Earth remote sensing space systems are envisioned, designed, and launched. The discussion is based on the hypothesis that reducing the environmental impacts of the data acquisition step, which is at the very beginning of the information stream leading to decision and action, will enhance coherence in the information stream and strengthen the capacity of measurement processes to meet their stated functional goal, i.e. sustainable management of Earth resources. We suggest that unconventional points of view should be adopted and when appropriate, remedial measures considered that could help to reduce the environmental footprint of space remote sensing and of Earth observation and monitoring systems in general. This article discusses these five assumptions in the context of sustainable management of Earth's resources. Taking each assumption in turn, we find the following:(1) Space debris may limit access to Low Earth Orbit over the next decades.(2) Relatively speaking, given that they're rare event, space launches may be benign, but study is merited on upper stratospheric and exospheric layers given the chemical activity associated with rocket combustion by-products.(3) Minimization of Type II error should be considered in situations where minimization of Type I error greatly hampers or precludes our ability to correct the environmental condition being studied.(4) In certain situations, airborne collects may be less expensive and more environmentally benign, and comparative studies should be done to determine which path is wisest.(5) International cooperation and data sharing will reduce instrument and launch costs and mission redundancy. Given fiscal concerns of most of the major space agencies – e.g. NASA, ESA, CNES – it seems prudent to combine resources.     

Remote sensing in the information age

A large percentage of the public today perceives the majority of applications of Earth observation data from satellite and aircraft altitudes to be focused on the understanding and management of the renewable and non-renewable resources of the Earth and its environment. Originally conceived as a tool for gathering intelligence information, remote sensing has just fully emerged from its military womb to the public domain. Advances in the technology, a variety of indirect benefits that could be derived from space exploration, commercialization of remote sensing and the drive of the value-added companies - all of these hold promise for new opportunities for many other novel applications of Earth observation data and related information. In the advent of the more advanced, user-friendly, cost effective, and problem solving operations being championed by the private sector, particularly in the industrialized countries, it appears that the commercial future for remote sensing programmes and related information generated in the process is promising. This paper examines how the information age is influencing the metamorphosis of remote sensing technology particularly through international legal instruments and converging technologies. In spite of the progress attained to-date, of international concern is possible radio frequency interference between remote sensing satellite and communication satellite services. There is also a major knowledge gap between the providers of raw remote sensing data and the user community, particularly those interested in the new high-level information. A resolution of these issues will enhance the contributions of remote sensing to the information economy.     

Taiwan's second remote sensing satellite

FORMOSAT-2 is Taiwan's first remote sensing satellite (RSS). It was launched on 20 May 2004 with five-year mission life and a very unique mission orbit at 891 km altitude. This orbit gives FORMOSAT-2 the daily revisit feature and the capability of imaging the Arctic and Antarctic regions due to the high enough altitude. For more than three years, FORMOSAT-2 has performed outstanding jobs and its global effectiveness is evidenced in many fields such as public education in Taiwan, Earth science and ecological niche research, preservation of the world heritages, contribution to the International Charter: space and major disasters, observation of suspected North Korea and Iranian nuclear facilities, and scientific observation of the atmospheric transient luminous events (TLEs). In order to continue the provision of earth observation images from space, the National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan started to work on the second RSS from 2005. This second RSS will also be Taiwan's first indigenous satellite. Both the bus platform and remote sensing instrument (RSI) shall be designed and manufactured by NSPO and the Instrument Technology Research Center (ITRC) under the supervision of the National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL). Its onboard computer (OBC) shall use Taiwan's indigenous LEON-3 central processing unit (CPU). In order to achieve cost effective design, the commercial off the shelf (COTS) components shall be widely used. NSPO shall impose the up-screening/qualification and validation/verification processes to ensure their normal functions for proper operations in the severe space environments.     

Cost-driven design of small satellite remote sensing systems*

Earth remote sensing (alongside communications) is one of the key application of Earth-orbiting satellites. Civilian satellites in the LANDSAT and SPOT series provide Earth images which have been used for a vast spectrum of applications in agriculture, meteorology, hydrology, urban planning and geology, to name but a few. In the defence sector, satellite remote sensing systems are a critical tool in strategic and tactical planning – for the countries which can afford them. To date, remote sensing satellites have fallen into one of these two categories: military missions driven by the requirement for very high resolution and orbital agility; and multipurpose civil satellites using general purpose sensors to serve a diverse community of end users. For military-style missions, the drive to high resolution sets the requirements for optics, attitude control and downlink data bandwidth. For civil missions, the requirement to satisfy multiple, diverse user applications forces compromises on spectral band and orbit selection. Although there are exceptions, many small satellite remote sensing missions carry on in this tradition, concentrating on ultra high resolution products for multiple user communities. This results in satellites costing on the order of US $100 M, not optimised for any particular application. This paper explores an alternative path to satellite remote sensing, aiming simultaneously to reduce cost and to optimise imaging products for specific applications. By decreasing the cost of the remote sensing satellite system to a critical point, it becomes appropriate to optimise the sensor's spectral and temporal characteristics to fit the requirements of a small, specialised user base. The critical engineering trade-off faced in a cost driven mission is how to reduce mission cost while still delivering a useful product to the selected user. At the Surrey Space Centre, we have pursued an engineering path using two dimensional CCD array sensors, commercial off-the-shelf lenses and gravity-gradient stabilised microsatellites. In spite of the inherent limitations of such systems, recent successes with the Thai Microsatellite Company's Thai-Phutt satellite show that a system costing in the region of US $3 million, can approach the spectral and spatial characteristics of LANDSAT. Surrey's UoSAT-12 minisatellite (to be launched April, 1999) will further develop this cost-driven approach to provide 10 m panchromatic resolution and 30 m multi-spectral resolution. This paper describes the Thai-Phutt and UoSAT-12 imaging systems, explaining the engineering methods and trade-offs. Although Surrey is presently the only centre presently pursuing such implementations, our paper shows that they deserve wider consideration.     

Towards a new remote sensing order?

This Viewpoint argues that the 1986 UN Principles on Remote Sensing have failed to anticipate the growth and broadening of the Earth observation field and are now less relevant. It traces the development of remote sensing: from a narrow government-controlled base, three distinct sectors of military, civil (i.e. public) and commercial Earth observation can now be distinguished and the latter is making images ever more widely and easily available. There has been no international effort to adjust the international legal regime to this changing environment and even the USA's remote sensing policy has basically been reactive. It is impossible now to conceive an overarching remote sensing policy and the challenge will be to shape each sectoral regime appropriately.     

Public good or commercial opportunity? Case studies in remote sensing commercialization

The US government is once again attempting to commercialize the Landsat program and is asking the private sector to develop a next-generation mid-resolution remote sensing system that will provide continuity with the thirty-year data archive of Landsat data. Much of the case for commercializing the Landsat program rests on the apparently successful commercialization of high-resolution remote sensing activities coupled with the belief that conditions have changed since the failed attempt to commercialize Landsat in the 1980s. This paper analyzes the economic, political and technical conditions that prevailed in the 1980s as well as conditions that might account for the apparent success of the emerging high-resolution remote sensing industry today. Lessons are gleaned for the future of the Landsat program.     

Continuity of moderate resolution Earth observation data: is an international solution the answer?

The operation of the US Landsat-7, launched in 1999, has proved a marked success. Together with the earlier Landsat data stored at the US Geological Survey Earth Data Analysis Center and other centers around the world, Landsat 7 data constitute a powerful tool for analyzing changes in the Earth's surface. However, the continuity of the Landsat system is not assured. An international system in which other countries participate could provide a more robust system, while spreading the costs and benefits of supplying such data more broadly. This paper explores the potential for creating an international arrangement to supply data of moderate resolution and extensive coverage in order to contribute to planetary stewardship, and discusses several different implementation approaches.     

Information Service System for Receiving and Processing Multi Source Remote Sensing Images

Based on international requirements for the application of commercial remote sensing data,an information service system for receiving and processing multi source remote sensing data was developed and introduced.The system consists of an Oversea Fixed Ground Service Station(OFGS),a Transportable Vessel-Borne Service Station(TVBS) and a Data Operation and Management Center(DOMC).Fixed and transportable service stations were developed in Venezuela,Latin America and for the China's Xuelong polar research vessel respectively,and serve the function of remote sensing data receiving,processing and application.The DOMC connects the OFGS and TVBS,so that they constitute a network to provide receiving,distribution,retrieval,browsing,ordering,and downloading functions for multi remote sensing satellite data and products.It validates the competence in providing 40 kinds of typical application products.The development of this system provides a reliable and comprehensive service for commercial remote sensing data applications for users both in domestic and oversea markets.     

Erdbeobachtende missionen—Anforderungen und konzepte

(Earth Observation Missions—Requirements and Concepts)—Ten years ago, on 23 July 1972. NASA launched the first satellite specifically designed for Earth observation. With Landsat 1 the importance and attractiveness of remote sensing from space increased worldwide.The paper presents in an overview former remote sensing missions with their applications and the system elements required for gathering Earth observation information. Main elements are the sensors (optical, microwave, and other instruments), the platforms (satellites, space stations, aircraft and Earth based stations) and their orbits.It is shown how these elements are interrelated and which constraints must be considered for planning an Earth observation mission. The feasibility, the amount of hard- and software, the costs, and the performance of a system are decisive for the realization of a satellite concept.Examples for different concepts investigated to date at Dornier System are given; included is the first ESA Remote Sensing Satellite ERS-1, which is now under definition at Dornier System, the main contractor of ESA.     

CBERS-1卫星IRMSS数据在城市绿地系统规划的应用

文章以CBERS -1卫星长沙幅IRMSS数据作为基础资料 ,利用PCI遥感图像处理软件对数据进行了预处理和应用实验。实验证明CBERS -1卫星的IRMSS数据图像信息丰富 ,可解译程度较高 ,能满足大中城市中等比例尺城市绿地系统规划遥感调查的要求     

Earthly environmentalism and the space exploration movement, 1960–1990: A study in irresolution

Little analysis exists of the interaction between the two most influential modern science-based social movements: space exploration and environmentalism. Since 1970 the term “Spaceship Earth” has been in common usage and the notion that the world requires careful stewardship has been acknowledged. Yet NASA had comparatively little to do with this important process of conceptual change for decades. It was meteorologists and oceanographers, among others, who established new government agencies including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to pioneer areas like climatology. This paper examines how NASA’s view of itself as a “space” agency long underplayed Earth as a part of the Solar System. Conceptual conflicts continue, to the detriment of political and public support for space.     

Information extraction from thematic mapper data

The Landsat-4 spacecraft, launched on July 9, 1982, is equipped with a new electro-optical sensor expected to advance the remote sensing capabilities of Earth resources satellites. An experimental instrument, the thematic mapper (TM), provides data in seven discrete energy bands with greatly improved spectral, spatial and radiometric resolution, relative to previous Landsat satellite systems. Scientists at NASA, National Space Technology Laboratories (NSTL), Earth Resources Laboratory (ERL) conducted an evaluation of Landsat-4 TM data, soon after its launch, to examine the potential of this new electro-optical sensor for providing improved information for renewable resources and land cover studies. Investigations of TM data included forested wetland, urban and agricultural land covers using a scene of data collected over Arkansas and Tennessee on August 22, 1982. Standard digital information extraction techniques were employed, and the classification accuracies achieved with a single date TM data set exceeded a 90% correct confidence level. While only spectral analysis techniques were utilized for this initial evaluation, the results clearly indicate the improved performance provided by the experimental TM sensor over previous Earth observing capabilities.     

Möglichkeiten und grenzen von mikrowellensystemen zur fernerkundung von satelliten

(Possibilities and Limitations of Microwave Systems for Satellite Remote Sensing)—Microwaves are applied in satellite remote sensing in both active, i.e. radar systems and in passive, i.e. microwave radiometer systems. The advantages and disadvantages of active and passive microwave systems in comparison to each other and to optical systems are discussed shortly. It becomes evident that radar has advantages over microwave radiometry due to its ranging and velocity-measurement capability, due to its SAR-capability with its extremely fine resolution and due to the fact that no major theoretical limitations exist for the obtainable measurement accuracy.The most important radar systems for Earth and ocean observations from satellites are altimeter, scatterometer and imaging radars with real or synthetic aperture. The physical and technical basics of these types of radar are presented together with some applications. Examples for remote sensing data and results obtained from different microwave remote sensing systems show the present state of the art and the present possibilities and limitations of microwave systems for satellite remote sensing.     

Processing/analysis capabilities for data acquired with hyperspectral spaceborne sensors

The Imaging Spectrometer Data Analysis System (ISDAS) is being developed by the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing and MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates on Sun Microsystems SPARC workstations using the Application Visualization System (AVS) software package to meet the requirements for efficient processing and analysis of hyperspectral data acquired with airborne as well as future spaceborne sensors. Various visualization tools have been developed for rapid exploratory analysis together with preprocessing and information extraction tools for numerical analysis. Linkages to a spectral database and a conventional image analysis system were established to support the analysis. ISDAS is being used for multidisciplinary applications development in areas such as agriculture, environment, and exploration geology using physically based analysis approaches to retrieve information from hyperspectral data. This continuing effort, in collaboration with industry will lead to streamlined procedures that are important to take hyperspectral satellite remote sensing towards an operational mode.     

Rethinking national and global security: The role of space-based observations

In 1955 US President Eisenhower made his Open Skies proposal to the USSR, suggesting an exchange of blueprints showing the location of military installations in the two countries. The proposal was rejected at the time, but today the proliferation of remote sensing technology, along with interrelated security concerns, suggests that the time has come to rethink and update the concept. In this paper the author explains his recent proposal to the US Congress that a national commission be established to explore how information gathered by civilian remote sensing satellites could increase international security and stability without jeopardizing national defence.