Satellite remote sensing of the environment

Jonathan L. Bamber University of Bristol UK Remote sensing (RS) is the derivation of information about an object which is not in direct contact with the observer. It is achieved by detecting changes in the energy field caused by the object. This could be a perturbation to the electromagnetic (EM), acoustic (seismology), gravity or magnetic field. In general, when related to satellite observations of the earth, it involves the use of EM radiation.

Introduction and background

Aerial photography expanded rapidly almost immediately after the invention of the aeroplane at the beginning of the 20th Century. The next major developments came about as a result of the use of photographic reconnaissance during the Second World War. The first satellite observations began in 1960 with the launch of TIROS 1, which carried a number of instruments designed to provide information on weather systems. A major milestone in earth RS took place in 1972 with the launch of the Earth Resources Technology Satellite - later called Landsat 1. The American based Landsat programme is still running (now on Landsat 7, launched in 2000) providing a continuous record of land surface characteristics for the last thirty years. The 1970s also saw the beginning of the computer revolution enabling the processing and storage of large quantities of digital imagery. These relatively recent advances mark the dawn of modern satellite remote sensing, which, like most technology-based disciplines, is a relatively young and rapidly advancing science. There are currently, some 650 operational satellites with around a further 2000 decommissioned ones in orbit. It is now possible to routinely obtain 1 m resolution imagery of land surfaces and to measure the surface temperature of the oceans from space with an accuracy of 0.2 K or their height with an accuracy of a few millimetres. Satellite sensors can determine the chemical composition of the upper atmosphere, measure wind speed and direction, water vapour concentration and even the health of a crop. Because of the global, synoptic, real-time capabilities of satellite RS, this article concentrates on spaceborne observations. Many of the concepts and principles introduced are, however, equally applicable to airborne RS, which although providing much more limited coverage, can offer much higher spatial resolution compared with equivalent satellite observations.

The electromagnetic spectrum

Observations of the earths surface from space utilise a relatively small number of wavebands within the EM spectrum where the atmosphere is relatively transparent and the EM radiation can travel unimpeded. These wavebands are known as atmospheric windows. Three main windows exist in the visible, infra-red (IR) and microwave part of the spectrum (Figure 1). Measurements made in each of these windows can be used to provide different, and often complementary, information about the atmosphere and surface of the earth. Before discussing these measurements, and the inferences that can be made from them, it is necessary to briefly mention some basic concepts related to the interaction of EM radiation with a surface.

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Figure 1. (a) The electromagnetic spectrum, showing the main atmospheric windows where satellite remote sensing is carried out and (b) the spectral emission characteristics of the Sun and the surface of the earth. Note that the peaks in emission are in the visible and thermal IR, respectively.

Properties of a surface: albedo and emissivity

There are two types of sensors, active and passive. An active sensor emits its own energy (such as a radar or laser system, discussed later), which is then reflected and/or scattered by the surface back to the sensor. Passive instruments measure either reflected solar radiation (typically in the visible part of the spectrum) or thermally emitted radiation (typically in the thermal IR or microwave part of the spectrum). The majority of instruments are passive. If they operate in the visible part of the spectrum they are limited to daylight hours and cannot make observations of the surface when clouds are present. Given that some parts of the planet have as much as 90% cloud cover this can present a severe limitation to the applicability of visible sensors for certain types of application. Visible and IR instruments provide information about the properties of the surface being viewed by making measurements at a number of different wavelengths or channels (for example at blue, green and red wavelengths). For example, Landsat 7 enhanced thematic mapper (ETM) has seven channels in the visible, near and thermal IR. Data from each channel are combined to allow a unique identification (or classification) of a surface type. To achieve this, however, it is necessary to understand how the spectral reflectance of different materials behaves at the wavelengths being used to view it. The spectral reflectance is also known as the albedo, a, and is a function of the wavelength, l, and also the viewing geometry (i.e. the angle of the sun and the sensor with respect to the surface). Note, however, that a is often used to describe the reflectance over the whole of the visible part of the spectrum, in which case it is no longer a function of l. Different surface materials have different albedos (i.e. different colours) and can be uniquely identified as a consequence. This is illustrated in Figure 2, which shows the albedo of a variety of vegetation and other land-cover types. A-priori knowledge of a(l) for different materials is, therefore, essential for allowing the reliable classification of a surface. This a-priori data is obtained from ground-based measurements of the spectral properties of different minerals, soils, plants etc. The data used in Figure 2, for example, was derived from such measurements.

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Figure 2. The spectral reflectance or albedo of different natural surfaces as a function of wavelength. It can be seen that ripe wheat, for example, has a higher albedo at ~1 mm, compared to unripe wheat, potentially allowing discrimination of the two. It can also be seen that for all the vegetation types included, there is a rapid increase in albedo at about 0.7 mm, which forms the basis for the vegetation index discussed in the section on applications. a(l) determines how much radiation is reflected by a material at a given wavelength. The emissivity, e, is the converse of this and determines how much energy is absorbed. Thus, e(l)=1-a(l). Both e(l) and a(l) have a range from 0-1 such that if a(l)=1 all the radiation is reflected and none is absorbed while if a(l)=0 all the energy is absorbed. If a(l)=0 for all wavelengths the object is known as a black body or perfect emitter. All objects above 0 K emit thermal radiation. The hotter they are the greater the intensity of the radiation they emit and the shorter the wavelength of this energy. Thus, as can be seen in Figure 1, the sun emits most of its energy in the visible part of the spectrum (at around 0.5 mm), while the earth emits most in the thermal IR (at around 10 mm). How much thermal radiation is emitted by a surface, and at what wavelength, depends on i) its temperature and ii) its emissivity. Usually the primary objective of measuring thermally emitted radiation is to determine the temperature of the surface being viewed. This, however, can only be achieved if e(l) is already known. Sea water, for example, has a well defined and stable emissivity at thermal IR wavelengths, allowing extremely accurate (~0.2 K) measurements of global sea surface temperature, day and night under cloud-free conditions (as with visible imaging, clouds are opaque in the IR). Other surfaces, such as most landcover, have a highly variable emissivity dependent on the vegetation type, soil moisture etc., making measurements of land surface temperature a more challenging and less accurate pursuit.

Anatomy of a satellite image

A satellite image is made up of picture elements or pixels. Each pixel has a digital number representing the intensity of radiation received. For the Landsat ETM 8 bit digitisation is used, resulting in a range of values from 0-255 for each pixel. One pixel represents an area on the ground (usually approximately square) and this defines the nominal spatial resolution of the image. For example, pixels in a multispectral ETM image represent a ground area of 30 x 30 m. One image, comprising millions of pixels, is recorded for each channel or band of the instrument and hence the ETM records 7 images of the surface in 7 different wavebands or channels. The area scanned by the ETM, in the across-track direction, known as the swath-width, is 185 km. Thus, for each band there are 185000/30 x 185000/30 Page 3

pixels. If this is multiplied by the number of bands, a total of 2.3x108 pixels are recorded for a single scene. This is equivalent to 230 Mb of data per scene. The Landsat orbit covers enough ground to allow the capture of about 3000 scenes/day, equivalent to 840 Gb of data. It is clear, therefore, that satellite sensors produce huge quantities of data and one of the major challenges of earth observation science is to manage, disseminate and process these data in an efficient and scientifically beneficial way.

Satellite orbits
There are two main types of orbit: a low earth orbit (LEO), with an altitude typically between 500 and 1500 km and a geostationary orbit with an altitude of 35,800 km. With the latter, as the name suggests, the satellite remains fixed over one point directly above the equator. The advantages of this type of orbit are that it provides wide-area, synoptic coverage from a single platform. Its main disadvantages are the low resolution of the imagery, due to the greater distance to the surface, and the fact that, due to the curvature of the earth, data cannot be obtained for latitudes higher than about 58. Geostationary orbits are generally used for meteorological satellites such as Meteosat and for telecommunications. LEOs have a period of ~ 100 minutes providing about 14 orbits round the earth per day. They can extend to higher latitudes (typically around 82) but it may take many days to produce global coverage as the size of an image is much smaller compared to that from a geostationary satellite. For example, the Landsat orbit pattern repeats itself every 16 days. Taking into account cloud cover, it may take more than a month to obtain an image of a particular area and several months to obtain repeat images.

Types of sensor
There are a wide range of instruments with characteristics determined by the primary application they were designed for. There are, however, a number of basic concepts and attributes common to most imaging instruments and this section presents a brief review of these basic concepts and some of the most commonly used instruments.

Visible and thermal imaging instruments

These instruments produce multi-spectral images at a variety of resolutions and wavelengths. The image is usually built up from a mirror that scans back and forth in the across-track direction producing a row of pixels. Subsequent rows are acquired using the along-track motion of the satellite. By far the most ubiquitous instrument and satellite series for earth resources applications is the Landsat Thematic Mapper and ETM. Table 1 provides some of the pertinent details regarding the history and development of the Landsat programme. Table 2 provides details of the spectral properties of the most recent instrument flown including a brief description of the utility of each band. It should be noted that this list is far from comprehensive. Table 1
Satellite Landsat 1 Landsat 2 Landsat 3 Landsat 4 Landsat 5 Landsat 6 Landsat 7 Start/end dates 7/72-6/78 1/75-2/82 3/78-3/83 7/82 3/84 10/93 failed 4/99

Details of the Landsat satellite programme

Instruments RBV MSS RBV MSS RBV MSS MSS TM MSS TM ETM ETM+ Resolution (m) 80 80 80 80 30 80 30 80 80 30 30/15* 30/15* Orbit (km) 917 917 917 705 705 705 705 altitude Orbit repeat period (days) 18 18 18 16 16 16 16

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RBV=return beam vidicon, MSS=multi spectral scanner * The ETM+ can operate in two modes: panchromatic (with 15 m resolution) or multi-spectral (30 m resolution). The panchromatic mode provides a single channel broad-bandwidth image. Table 2 Spectral properties of the Landsat ETM+ Band 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 name blue green red near IR near IR thermal IR mid IR wavelength (mm) 0.45-0.52 0.52-0.6 0.63-0.69 0.77-0.9 1.55-1.75 10.4-12.5 2.08-2.35 application good water penetration, strong vegetation absorbance strong vegetation reflectance strong vegetation absorbance high land/water contrast moisture sensitive temperature mapping geological discrimination

The swath width of the ETM+ is 185 km and the orbit has an inclination of 98.2, which means that the satellite provides coverage to a latitude of 82.5. Landsat data have been used in a wide range of applications including agriculture, botany, forestry, fire mapping, and land and water resource management. Data are readily accessible, easy to browse and order, and relatively inexpensive (currently $600 for an ETM+ image). An example of a Landsat TM image, taken in 1998, of the northeast part of Mallorca is shown in Figure 3a. Figure 3b illustrates a simple unsupervised classification of the image into 5 classes or categories, broadly representing the different surface types encountered in the image, based on similarities in their spectral characteristics in each of the 7 channels. Another important visible imaging satellite programme is the French Systeme Probatoire de l'Observation de la Terre (SPOT) series. The first satellite was launched in 1986 with three more satellites providing continuity since then. The SPOT sensor, known as the high resolution visible (HRV) imaging system provides higher resolution (20 m multi-spectral, 10 m panchromatic), and lower noise, imagery compared to the TM or ETM+ but, until 1998, at only three wavelengths in the visible and near IR. One of the key features of this satellite series has been its ability to produce images of the same area with different viewing geometry. These are known as stereo pairs and can be used to derive topographic information about the surface being viewed. SPOT is a commercial enterprise and the cost of the data is relatively high. The advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) differs from the two previous sensors discussed in a number of ways. First, it has a moderate resolution of about 1.1 km at nadir (directly below the satellite) and second it is flown onboard a satellite designed primarily for meteorological applications rather than earth resources. It is, consequently, part of a non-commercial earth observation programme run by the US national oceanic and atmospheric administration (NOAA). The data are, therefore, freely available, resulting in a strong uptake from the scientific community for use in a wide range of applications extending beyond the original objectives of the programme. One such application has been in monitoring global biomass using the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI). Most vegetation possesses an abrupt change in albedo at a wavelength of about 0.7 mm (Figure 2), due largely to the reflectance properties of chlorophyll. The NDVI employs this fact to determine the proportion of vegetation in a pixel by comparing the radiance in two channels, one below 0.7 mm and the other above. AVHRR has a swath width of 2400 km and can, therefore, provide near-global coverage on a daily basis. AVHRR is a five channel instrument including two channels in the thermal IR. This part of the spectrum is where the peak emission from the surface of the earth takes place (Figure 1), providing a strong signal for surface temperature estimation. AVHRR has been used to measure global sea surface temperature for over twenty years, providing information, for example, on the strength of the El-Nino Southern Oscillation in a particular year or the mixing of warm and cool waters at the margins of large currents, where fish shoals tend to congregate. Page 5

Figure 3. A Landsat Thematic Mapper image of part of north-east Mallorca. (a) shows a true colour composite (bands 1, 2 and 3). (b) shows the image segmented into five classes or categories according to the spectral properties of each pixel, i.e. each class has similar spectral characteristics and should, therefore, represent a particular type of surface. Noise in the image, atmospheric interference, and overlapping spectral properties of different materials in the bands of TM often result in an imperfect classification, requiring user intervention (supervised classification).

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There are many other imaging systems in orbit and there is not space to cover even a small fraction of them in this article but the three sensors discussed provide an overview of the technology, capability and information content of past and current imaging sensors. Recently, however, a variety of higher resolution sensors (both spatially and spectrally) have been placed in orbit. For example, a 1 m resolution visible imaging system was launched in 2000 (IKONOS) and hyperspectral instruments, possessing many channels (36 for example, for the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer and 220 for the 30 m resolution Hyperion), are being, or will be, flown shortly to provide highly accurate and detailed definition of land surface characteristics. Many nations, including Russia, Japan, Canada, China and India, have their own satellite programmes and their is now a wealth of earth observation data available, often free of charge, to the scientific community.

Radar sensors
As mentioned earlier, visible and IR sensors cannot view the earths surface in the presence of clouds. For some parts of the planet, such as rainforests and the polar regions, this poses a severe limitation to their viability for applications requiring regular temporal sampling. This is where sensors operating in the microwave part of the EM spectrum can be of use. Unlike the sensors described above, radars are active instruments transmitting a pulse of microwave energy to the ground and then detecting the scattered energy back at the satellite. The most relevant type of radar system here is known as a synthetic aperture radar (SAR). A SAR has been operated continuously on the ERS-1 and 2 satellites since 1991 as part of a European Space Agency (ESA) programme. ERS-2 is due to superseded by ENVISAT at the end of 2000. Because they are active systems, SARs can operate day or night and are almost completely unaffected by weather conditions. They have to date, however, operated at a single frequency and polarisation, providing, therefore, a one-channel or grey-scale image of the surface. Furthermore, the signal strength in a SAR image is related to the microwave properties of the surface and, in particular, the centimetre-scale roughness. The current suite of satellite-based SARs have a resolution of between 12 and 25 m. They are particularly effective at identifying water bodies and changes in surface characteristics due, for example, to a rain storm, mud-slide or agricultural activity. They do not, however, have the spectral fidelity necessary to allow accurate discrimination of surface types such as differences in vegetation. One of the most novel and exciting developments in radar satellite remote sensing is interferometric SAR. This is where two or more images of the same site, obtained at different times, are combined to produce an interference pattern that is sensitive to i) the topography of the surface and ii) any displacement that has taken place between the two measurements. This technique is sensitive enough to be able to observe millimetric displacements and has been used, for example, to measure crustal deformation, land subsidence and changes caused by earth quakes.

Applications of remote sensing relevant to life sciences

Satellite remote sensing has an extremely diverse range of applications in meteorology, oceanography, solid earth geophysics, hydrology, glaciology, ecology, environmental change and monitoring and so on. Introduced here are a small selection of application areas relevant to the life sciences, providing an indication of the breadth and scope of the subject with no attempt at being comprehensive in coverage.

Oceanography
The SeaWifs sensor, launched in 1997, was designed to measure phytoplankton concentration in surface waters, based on measurements of ocean colour. Phytoplankton form the lowest trophic level of the marine food chain and are responsible for the uptake of dissolved CO2 through photosynthesis. They can be seen as a measure of the biological health of the oceans. SeaWifs was the successor to the coastal zone colour scanner (CZCS) that was flown, originally, as a one year proof of concept mission. Despite its name, the CZCS was used to produce global estimates of surface pigment concentrations using four very narrow channels in the visible, one in the near IR and one in the thermal IR. The CZCS Page 7

successfully measured chlorophyll, temperature, suspended solids and surface vegetation in coastal and off-shore waters. The instrument proved so successful it was operated from 1978-1986 and clearly showed the capability of satellite sensors to monitor ocean primary productivity. SeaWifs aims to continue the temporal record begun by the CZCS. The physical properties of the oceans, such as sea surface temperature, waveheight, wind speed and ocean circulation can also be determined using spaceborne instruments. The use of AVHRR data to measure temperature has already been mentioned. Another instrument that has proved particularly useful for physical oceanography is the radar altimeter. This, like a SAR, is an active microwave instrument, transmitting a pulse of EM radiation to the ground and measuring the time taken for the pulse to be reflected back to the satellite. Unlike a SAR, a radar altimeter is not an imaging instrument and produces point measurements of sea surface height, roughness and backscatter that can be used to determine physical properties of the surface waters.

The Biosphere
Satellite remote sensing of the biosphere is focussed primarily on monitoring vegetation and estimating biomass. Measurements of NDVI have already been mentioned as a means of determining the amount of vegetation cover present in an image. Such data have been recorded, routinely, since the late 1970s and provide an indication of, for example, changing agricultural patterns, deforestation rates, urbanisation and increased desertification with time. AVHRR is useful for providing global coverage at moderate resolution (~1 km). For more detailed, site-specific studies, higher resolution sensors such as the Landsat (E)TM or SPOT are required. The greater spectral fidelity of the ETM allows discrimination of different crop types and even their health and/or stage of growth. Such analyses require a detailed knowledge of the spectral characteristics (or spectral albedo) of the crop during its growth cycle (see, for example Figure 2). Attempts are also being made to determine parameters such as woody biomass using new and novel instruments such as scanning laser altimeters, known as lidars. These instruments are able to obtain range measurements from the canopy and bare earth beneath providing an estimate of the tree height and canopy structure. To date, no satellite lidars have been flown (although such a mission, called the vegetation canopy lidar, is planned) but airborne studies have proven the capability of this type of technology for biomass estimation.

Meteorology and climate change

Weather forecasting and numerical weather prediction is critically dependent on the use of satellite data relating to both atmospheric and surface processes. A network of geostationary meteorological satellites, centred over the equator at various longitudes, provide real-time, synoptic data on atmospheric water vapour, clouds, precipitation and winds. These data are complemented by LEO satellites operated by organisations such as NOAA, ESA and the US air force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). They offer higher resolution, but poorer temporal sampling and can provide, for example, profiles of water vapour through the troposphere (the lowest 11 km of the atmosphere containing ~90% of its mass). Other satellites and sensors are providing information on tropospheric and stratospheric chemistry including monitoring concentrations of greenhouse gases and ozone. For example, the total ozone mapping spectrometer, TOMS, has been in operation since the early 1980s. Temperature profiling is also possible using instruments such as the microwave sounding unit and high resolution IR sounder 2, both onboard NOAA polar-orbiting satellites. These sensors provide over a twenty year record and have been one of the primary sources for investigating the impact of global warming on atmospheric temperature.

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Hydrology
As mentioned in the previous section, the occurrence and intensity of precipitation can be monitored using instruments such as the special sensor microwave imager (SSM/I) onboard the DMSP satellite series. This instrument measures microwave emission from the atmosphere, which is strongly affected by liquid water in the atmosphere. Unfortunately, rain measurements are only possible over open ocean, where the surface emissivity is well known. Over land surface this is not the case. Cloud top temperatures, derived from satellites such as Meteosat can, however, be used to give an indication of preciptation taking place over land. Soil moisture can be determined using, for example, SAR backscatter information, if a-priori information about the surface type is known. The microwave properties of surfaces such as soil, sand and snow are extremely sensitive to the presence of water. Therefore, even relatively small concentrations of water (of 1-2%) can be detected using microwave instruments such as a SAR. There are difficulties in providing absolute values of soil moisture without extensive ground calibration but relative variations can be identified quite easily, providing valuable information on the agricultural development potential of a site, for example. Both visible and microwave data are extremely effective at discriminating between land and water bodies such as rivers and lakes. Repeat sampling provides invaluable information for water resources planning and research on areal fluctuations. Flood events and other forms of mass transport such as mud slides can be readily detected using SAR backscatter data, especially if pre-event data are available for comparison. For lakes greater than about 30 km diameter, it has proved possible to monitor their water level using radar altimeter height data. Combining this information with areal extent allows volume changes to be determined. Shortly, NASA plans to launch the Ice, Cloud and Elevation Satellite (ICESat), which will carry the Geosciences Laser Altimeter System. This instrument will provide centimetre-accuracy elevation data and will be able to obtain measurements over smaller lakes compared to a radar altimeter. Like other visible systems it will, however, be affected by cloud cover.

The cryosphere
Satellite RS is particularly valuable for in monitoring the cryosphere as the polar regions are difficult, hazardous and expensive regions to work in. The cryosphere also represents one of the most dynamic components of the climate system: seasonal snow covers as much as 40 M km2 of the northern hemisphere during the winter months, receding to almost zero cover by late spring. It is an important water resource and has a strong influence on energy and moisture exchanges between the atmosphere and underlying soil. Plant growth and photosynthesis are strongly affected by the presence of snow cover. Variations in snow cover extent and the timing of the onset of melt may also provide an early indication of northern hemisphere climate change. Passive microwave data from instruments such as the SSM/I have been used since the late 1970s to monitor both snow extent and depth on a hemispheric scale. One of the other most dynamic components of the cryosphere is sea ice. This is a thin layer (typically 1-5 m thick) of frozen sea water that forms in the Arctic and Southern Oceans during their respective winter months. Its areal extent ranges from 4 to 19 M km2 and 2 to 15 M km2 for the Southern and Arctic oceans, respectively. Sea ice acts as a thermal blanket, dramatically reducing photosynthesis and energy exchange between the atmosphere and ocean. Because of the large difference between the microwave emissivity of sea ice and open ocean, passive microwave radiometers (such as SSM/I) have proved particularly useful for measuring hemispheric variations in extent and concentration. Their allweather, day-night capability is particularly useful for this application although their course spatial resolution (of about 25 km) limits their use in detailed, regional analyses.

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The future of satellite remote sensing

Satellite RS is a relatively young, technology driven science. As a consequence, the rapid advances in instrument hardware, data mass storage and computing power are resulting in ever more sophisticated satellites making increasingly more accurate, detailed and frequent measurements of a wide range of atmospheric and surface properties. ESAs flagshap earth observation satellite, ENVISAT, is slated for launch at the end of 2001. It will weigh 8140 kg and will carry onboard ten different instruments. Some of these are aimed at providing continuity with existing sensors such as radar altimeters, infrared radiometers and SARs. Others, such as the scanning imaging absorption spectrometer for atmospheric chartography (SCIAMACHY), are entering largely uncharted territory. In early 2002, the launch of the first satellite-based laser altimeter (ICESat) will take place. It will provide new and novel information on the height and structure of clouds, glaciers and sea ice and land surfaces. Satellite RS is, therefore, a rapidly evolving science and looks set to maintain its place as the tool of choice for measuring the health of the planet. Inevitably, the literature on the subject can rapidly become out of date and for the most current information the various space agencies mentioned in this article provide excellent web-based resources on both the technology of their satellite programmes and the science behind them.

Further reading
Gurney, R.J., Foster, J.L. Parkinson C.L. (ed) (1993) Atlas of satellite observations related to global change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Lillesand, T.M. and Kiefer, R.W. (2000) Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation, 4th edn. John Wiley, New York. Lunetta, R., Elvidge, C. (1999) Remote Sensing Change Detection. Taylor and Francis, London.

Glossary
Albedo the amount of radiation reflected by a surface at a particular wavelength in proportion to the incident amount. Expressed either as a percentage value or from 0-1. Altimeter an instrument that measures the range to a surface, and thus its height, by measuring the travel time of a pulse of electromagnetic radiation. Classification a term used in remote sensing for the process of segmenting an image into a number of classes or groups with similar spectral and/or textural properties. Emissivity the converse of albedo indicating the proportion of radiation absorbed by a surface relative to the incident amount Pixel an element of an image representing the nominal spatial resolution of the image. Radiometer a type of instrument that measures the reflected solar radiation and/or thermally emitted radiation from a surface. This is usually, but not always, an imaging sensor.

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