Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Remote Sensing: Past and Present

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Principles of Applied Remote Sensing

Abstract

The use of remote sensing perhaps goes all the way back to prehistoric times when the early man stood on a platform in front of his cave and glanced at the surrounding landscape (late Robert N. Colwell, UC Berkeley). These humans were remotely sensing the features in the landscape to determine the best places to gather food and water and how to avoid becoming a food for the other inhabitants of the landscape. The term “photography” is derived from two Greek words meaning “light” (phos) and “writing” (graphein) (late John E. Estes, UC Santa Barbara). All cameras and sensors utilize the same concept of light entering a camera or a sensor and being recorded on a film or on a digital media.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Baumann, P.R. 2009. Geo/SAT2. History of Remote Sensing, Department of Geography, State University of New York, College at Oneonta, Oneonta, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Cloud, J. 2001. Hidden in plain sight: the CORONA reconnaissance satellite programme and clandestine Cold War science. Annals of Science 58: 203–209.

    Google Scholar 

  • Congalton, R.G., and K. Green. 1999. Assessing the Accuracy of Remotely Sensed Data: Principles and Practices. Boca Raton, FL: Lewis Publishers. 137 p.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dougherty, M., R. Dymond, S. Goetz, C. Jantz, and N. Goulet. 2004. Evaluation of impervious surface estimates in a rapidly urbanizing watershed. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 70: 1275–1284.

    Google Scholar 

  • Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). 2001. The ESRI Press Dictionary of GIS Terminology. Redlands, CA: Environmental Systems Research Institute. 116 p.

    Google Scholar 

  • European Space Agency (ESA). 2009. Space debris: evolution in pictures [web site]. European Space Agency, European Space Operations Centre. http://www.esa.int/esaMI/ESOC/SEMN2VM5NDF_mg_1.html

  • Franklin, S.E., and M.A. Wulder. 2002. Remote sensing methods in medium spatial resolution satellite data land cover classification of large areas. Progress in Physical Geography 26: 173–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gates, D.M., H.J. Keegan, J.C. Schleter, and V.R. Weidner. 1965. Spectral properties of plants. Applied Optics 4: 11–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodchild, M.F., S. Guoqing, and Y. Shiren. 1992. Development and test of an error model for categorical data. International Journal of Geographical Information Systems 6: 87–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hester, D.B., H.I. Cakir, S.A.C. Nelson, and S. Khorram. 2008. Per-pixel classification of high spatial resolution satellite imagery for urban land-cover mapping. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 74: 463–471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirsch, R. 2008. Seizing the Light: A Social History of Photography, 2nd edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education. 480 p.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jensen, J.R. 2005. Introductory Digital Image Processing, 3rd edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. 316 p.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kerr, J.T., and M. Ostrovsky. 2003. From space to species: ecological applications for remote sensing. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18: 299–305.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khorram, S., H. Cheshire, X. Dai, and J. Morisette. 1996. Land cover inventory and change detection of coastal North Carolina using Landsat Thematic Mapper data. In: Proceedings of the ASPRS/ACSM Annual Convention and Exposition, April 22–25, 1996, Baltimore, MD, Volume 1: Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry, pp. 245–250.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khorram, S., G.S. Biging, N.R. Chrisman, D.R. Colby, R.G. Congalton, J.E. Dobson, R.L. Ferguson, M.F. Goodchild, J.R. Jensen, and T.H. Mace. 1999. Accuracy Assessment of Remote Sensing-Derived Change Detection. Bethesda, MD: American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Monograph. 64 p.

    Google Scholar 

  • Konecny, G., P. Lohmann, H. Engel, and E. Kruck. 1987. Evaluation of SPOT imagery on analytical photogrammetric instruments. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 53: 1223–1230.

    Google Scholar 

  • Longley, P.A., M.F. Goodchild, D.J. Maguire, and D.W. Rhind. 2001. Geographic Information Systems and Science. Chichester, UK: John Wiley and Sons. 454 p.

    Google Scholar 

  • Madry, S. 2013. Introduction to history of space remote sensing, In Handbook of Satellite Applications, 2nd ed. Editors: J.N. Pelton, S. Madry, L. Camacho, and S. Lara. Springer-Verlag, Chapt. 32, New York City, New York, 30 p, ISBN: 978-1-4419-7670-3

    Google Scholar 

  • Mattison, D. 2008. Aerial photography. In: Hannavy, J., ed. Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-century Photography, Volume 1. New York: Routledge, pp. 12–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy, J.J. 2009. Reflections on: our planet and its life, origins, and futures. Science 326: 1646–1655.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newhall, B. 1982. The History of Photography: from 1839 to the Present, 5th edition. New York: Museum of Modern Art. 319 p.

    Google Scholar 

  • Professional Aerial Photographers Association (PAPA) International. 2011. History of aerial photography [web site]. PAPA International. http://www.papainternational.org/history.asp

  • Rees, G. 2001. Physical Principles of Remote Sensing. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 343 p.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Short, N.M. 2010. The Remote Sensing Tutorial [web site]. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Goddard Space Flight Center. http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/

  • Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). 2011. UCS Satellite Database [web site]. Union of Concerned Scientists, Nuclear Weapons & Global Security. http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear_weapons_and_global_security/space_weapons/technical_issues/ucs-satellite-database.html

  • Utterback, J.M. 1995. Developing technologies: the Eastman Kodak story. McKinsey Quarterly 1995(1): 130–144.

    Google Scholar 

  • Witze, A. 2007. News: Briefing—A timeline of Earth observation [online document]. Nature. doi:10.1038/news.2007.320. http://www.nature.com/news/2007/071205/full/news.2007.320.html

  • Wood, R.D. 1997. A state pension for L.J.M. Daguerre for the secret of his Daguerreotype technique. Annals of Science 54: 489–506.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Suggested Reading

  • Morain, S.A. 1998. A brief history of remote sensing applications, with emphasis on Landsat. pp. 28–50 in Liverman, D., E.F. Moran, R.R. Rindfuss, and P.C. Stern, eds. People and Pixels: Linking Remote Sensing and Social Science. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. 256 p.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paine, D.P. and J.D Kiser. 2003. Aerial Photography and Image Interpretation, 2nd edition. New York: John Wiley and Sons. 632 p. [This text also has a student companion web site, http://bcs.wiley.com/he-bcs/Books?action=index&itemId=0471204897&itemTypeId=BKS&bcsId=2050]

  • Manual of Remote Sensing. Second edition. Robert N. Colwell, editor. Falls Church, Virginia: American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 1983.

    Google Scholar 

  • Remote Sensing Glossary, Earth Imaging Glossary

    Google Scholar 

Relevant Websites

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Sci. Policy & Mgmt., University of California, Berkeley, 94720, Berkeley, California, USA

    Siamak Khorram & Matthew D. Potts

  2. Center for Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University, 27695-7106, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

    Siamak Khorram

  3. US Environmental Protection Agency Region 4 NEPA Program Office, 109 T.W. Alexander Drive, 27711, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA

    Cynthia F. van der Wiele

  4. Southern Research Station, USDA Forest Service, 27709, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA

    Frank H. Koch

  5. Center for Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University, 27695-7106, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

    Stacy A. C. Nelson

Authors
  1. Siamak Khorram
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Cynthia F. van der Wiele
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Frank H. Koch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Stacy A. C. Nelson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Matthew D. Potts
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Siamak Khorram .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Khorram, S., van der Wiele, C.F., Koch, F.H., Nelson, S.A.C., Potts, M.D. (2016). Remote Sensing: Past and Present. In: Principles of Applied Remote Sensing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22560-9_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation