remote sensing

Remote sensing – pictures of the earth taken from orbiting satellites or aircraft, and other measurements of the land, vegetation, water and atmosphere – is an important technology for communicating the effect of human interaction with the environment.

Advocates and managers can use remote sensing to study urban sprawl, deforestation, oil and gas production, and mining; quantify impacts that have occurred over time in response to human activities and climate change; monitor industrial, resource-extraction, and fishing operations; and ensure compliance with environmental laws and regulations. The area of concern can range from highly local (a mountaintop removal mine) to global (cumulative loss of boreal forests), from nearby (a new subdivision) to far-flung (trawling on deep-ocean seamounts).

At the national level, several federal agencies are providing basic image data and a few types of “value-added” products to the public, increasingly via the Internet. The main providers include:

NASA– operates the Earth Observing System of satellite-based remote sensing instruments, special photography and radar imagery missions of the Space Shuttle, and maintains a huge library of historical digital and film images as part of its Earth Science Enterprise. Collaborates with universities and commercial industry on various projects to promote the use of RS data, particularly through programs administered by Goddard Space Flight Center and Stennis Space Center. Sponsors the Landsat Pathfinder project with large universities.
NOAA – operates and distributes data from national weather satellites; Coastal Services Center conducts environmental projects using RS/GIS in coastal regions, often in collaboration with State and local governments.
USGS - The primary distribution site for aerial photography, satellite imagery, topographic data, and many other types of spatial data collected and maintained by the federal government. An on-line interface allows data search, ordering, and in some cases direct download. USGS also produces some environmental value-added products, including digital land use and land cover data for North America in cooperation with the Environmental Protection Agency.