Remote Sensing Tutorial “What’s New”¶
Contents
FLASH! The CD version of the PIT image processing program has now been reloaded successfully onto the CD version and can be accessed through the instructions in Appendix B. The Web version should be available by April 1, 2003.
The current version of the Remote Sensing Tutorial (RST) has now updated through March 1, 2003. In the last 18 months, the principal additions or changes include: 1) Additions of subsections on Geophysical Remote Sensing, Sensor Technology; Military Satellite Surveillance, and Medical Applications of Remote Sensing, all in the Introduction; 2) Further updates on the Planets in Section 20; 3) A major expansion of the Astronomy-Cosmology Section; 4) More images expanding upon previous and new applications in many of the Sections; 5) a series of new images in the Preface, and 6) Examples of imagery returned from satellites launched between 2000 and 2002.
The Tutorial has been organized in a style or format that makes it optimal for use from a CD-ROM, a recent edition of which has now become available again in 2002. As you may know, there are also Internet Web sites (including at least 30 “mirror” sites) that contain a similar version of the Tutorial. The original Internet URL remains “http://rst.gsfc.nasa. gov. (Note: the Goddard organization - Code 935 - that originally sponsored development of the Tutorial starting in 1995, no longer carries the RST on its server).
Primary sponsorship of the Remote Sensing Tutorial underwent a change on February 1, 2002. The server is now operated by (and is responsible for adding all new material) the RSEOL, Remote Sensing Education and Outreach Laboratory, which is part of CARSTAD, the Center for Airborne Remote Sensing and Technology and Applications Development at Goddard Space Flight Center, Mr. John Bolton, Director. At this time, their Internet URL of the Remote Sensing Tutorial is the one on which what you are viewing is located. The RST can also be accessed through this CARSTAD link. However, all formal funding for the RST has ceased by January 2002. Continued work on the Tutorial is being down in “bootleg” fashing, by voluntary efforts from Nicholas M. Short and John Bolton.
Entering by the Internet is the appropriate pathway if you are on some type of fast-displaying broadband cable telesphone, or satellite dish (DSL, T-line, etc. for which the Tutorial has been designed, since this allows use of many images per page. But if you are limited to a phone line and low modem download rates you may find its slowness makes it hard to work through the Tutorial expeditiously. (Suggestions: only download a few pages or at most a Section on a given day and spend enough time to master the contents. Or, alternatively, purchase the CD-ROM version.)
At the outset, the principal writer, Dr. Nicholas M. Short, wishes you to be aware of how the Tutorial was put together: First, much material has been drawn from his own publications. Second, additional information was gleaned from some of the standard textbooks, such as those listed in the Overview. Third, a large number of illustrations, and some textual ideas, were downloaded directly from the Internet, especially NASA or NASA-related Web sites; wherever appropriate, these sources are acknowledged. This last approach was vital in producing the Tutorial - it is in effect a “child” of the Internet Age. In this third case, many of the images are probably not acknowledged to their sources’ satisfaction. If you are one of these sources, and wish to receive a proper acknowledgement, please contact the primary writer (N.M. Short [or NMS] at the email address below or found on almost every page of the Tutorial.
For a time in 1999, work on the Tutorial became a more collaborative effort as the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, approached NASA Goddard’s Code 935 to become a funding partner in continuing to develop the Tutorial and to maintain the Web online version. From early 1999 to mid-2000, the Air Force Academy was the sole supporting funding sponsor which has facilitated maintaining the host server and adding or changing considerable new text and illustrations. This led to addition of several new Sections for the Tutorial prepared by the Academy. For nearly 18 months thereafter, the Tutorial has benefited from the combined efforts of these organizations: NASA GSFC Code 935, the USAF Academy, Global Science and Technology Inc.; additional management was provided by the OAO Corporation and Northern NEF, Inc. Currently, no further direct funding is available to continue the Tutorial but the principal writer (NMS) continues to improve it on his own time for two reasons: 2) being retired, it gives him something “fun” to do; and 2) he gains much satisfaction in trying to continue to improve the overall quality of the RST.
In 1999 the RST was put into a CD-ROM produced under NASA auspices and distributed the the NASA CORE facility. It, however, was never updated and is now quite obsolete, with no plans to get the latest version into that distributorship. The writer (NMS) ADVISES THAT THIS OLD VERSION NOT BE PURCHASED. But he has recently agreed to make individual CD-ROMs available through his own CD-Writer. Contact him either through the instructions accessed on the Title page that comes up on the Internet or by using his email address given below.
The Remote Sensing Tutorial as a whole has undergone other significant changes between 1998 and the end of 2002 that are designed to improve the usefulness of this website. In terms of imagery high resolution images from commercial satellites such as IKONOS and OrbImage-3 are first introduced in the Preface and appear where appropriate elsewhere in other Sections. Hyperspectral imagery also is now common enough to warrant insertions. In addition to those mentioned in the first paragraph, a number of other changes have been made to the earlier versions (1996 through 1998) of the Tutorial. Various paragraphs and subpages were modified or added anew. Section 3 dealing with how remote sensing is used to study vegetation has been notably modified. Section 6 was expanded by a factor of 2 to extend the tour from just the United States to the entire world. A new last page in Section 11 introduces the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). A page on the “Multi-” concept has been inserted in Section 13. Three new pages were added at the end of Section 16 to report results from the EOS-Terra amd EOS-Aqua missions. New images, and accompanying text, were incorporated in Section 19, dealing with Mars and Jovian satellites, and other miscellaneous topics. Section 20 (in early versions, Appendix A) on “Cosmology” has some major changes and new material. The old Section 20 on future programs becomes Section 21. A new Appendix A, History of Space, has been submitted by the Air Force Academy sponsors.
Two other important modifications: 1) each page has a summary at the top; and 2) the figure/image captions, initially written out, have been expanded and then hidden - just hold your mouse cursor in the lower right corner of the illustration and the caption emerges after a second or so.
An Appendix (B) has been added to the CD-ROM that accompanies this book which will allow users to learn and use an interactive image processing program, called PIT. Although download and setup instructions given in the appendix should work for most computer systems that enter the Tutorial either on the Internet or from a CD-ROM, in some cases the program may not be retrievable using the Appendix B guidelines. If you are accessing the Tutorial from the CD-ROM, that medium has separate folders called PIT and PIT Images which can be transferred to your computer directly. After working through this appendix, you will have the opportunity to actually process several types of space imagery using this computer-based software, which will be included on the CD-ROM as well as through FTP download across the internet. Its principal feature is a group of programs that allow one to classify the scene features into a thematic “map” format. Please be advised that some users have experienced difficulties in downloading the PIT program and the associated PIT images: if you have trouble, please contact NMS at the email address below.
The versions of the Tutorial since 1997 have a powerful instructional device: most Sections will include a series of questions inserted within relevant parts of the text. These are designed to stimulate one’s learning experience by being challenged to answer thought questions, to solve using mathematics problems that rely on equations, to carry out practical exercises requiring interpretations of imagery, to make lists, or to record your general comments or opinions. A question is identified by being italicized in brown and at its beginning by a marker label such as I-3 or 13-8. Unlike most textbooks that have questions at the end of a chapter, but fail to provide answers, this Tutorial is closely modeled after the writer’s (N.M. Short) earlier Landsat Tutorial Workbook which had [often subjective] answers to the many questions it contained in an Appendix). Thus, in this Tutorial the student/user can apply his/her mind to reaching plausible answers or conducting calculations and then by clicking on the blue ANSWER be directed to an answer sheet (each section has its own single page sheet). Once on the answer sheet, to return to the page containing the question, just click on the BACK button at the end of the answer or on your browser’s Back button.
If you did reasonably well, amy similarities to these stock answers will give you confidence that you have acquired and can use the information pertinent to the question; if your answer seems “off” with respect to the one I have provided (assuming I am more or less “right”) then you will still learn by having tried, attained some level of understanding, and then having been guided to an appropriate measure of the “truth” in the answer provided. Most questions or exercise activities will require your brain as the only tool, but some exercises will involve examining specific images. You can either work directly from your screen or can print out the image/picture from your computer setup. Some questions have a geographic flavor: keep a U.S. Atlas and a World Atlas handy.
Important teaching tools are a beginners “Get Acquainted” Quiz at the end of the Overview and also two large “exams” that test your accruing knowledge by having you answer questions on a series of related data sets (mostly images). One appears at the end of Section 1 and the second at the close of Section 21. A simple recognition of “Where in the World is this Scene?” is included in Section 6. By all means, do each of these as they will help significantly in your learning process.
Many references are made in the Tutorial text to Web sites that serve as references and as sources of complimentary information. As most users of the Internet readily know, URLs are often changed, while some are even dropped and removed. Be advised that we have striven to make these as current as possible but as time progresses some will disappear or otherwise be altered without our knowledge. Bring any problems of this kind to our attention via e-mail.