Remote Sensing

•Remote Sensing is the science of acquiring information about

the earth surface without actually being in contact with it.

•The method is commonly restricted to employ

electromagnetic energy (such as light, heat and radio waves)
as the means of detecting and measuring targets.
•
•Remote Sensing is an advanced form of Surveying in which
land surveying has been replaced by aerial photographs &
satellite images.

•Applications whether it is geographical, geological,

oceanographic or cartographic, Remote Sensing is the
essential tool for all application areas.
Remote Sensing Basics
Electromagnetic Energy
Electromagnetic Energy refers to all energy that moves
with the velocity of light in a harmonic wave pattern.

Sources
of Energy Sensing
Systems
Transmission
Absorption
Emission
Scattering Earth Surface
Reflection
 Electromagnetic Spectrum
Emissions are recorded in various wavelengths of visible region .

0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 µ m

green
near

blue

red
UV
infrared

wavelength (µ m) wavelength (µ m)

10-6 10-5 10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 1 10 102 103 104 105 106 107
γ rays

Visible Light
near infrared
mid infrared
thermal infrared

microwave
X rays

Ultraviolet (UV)

TV and radio
Based on source of energy, Remote Sensing can be broadly
divided in two categories.

(i) Passive Remote Sensing

(ii) Active Remote Sensing

When remote sensing instruments both generate and detect their

own source of radiation, the process is called Active remote
sensing. i.e.Aerial Photography, Microwave remote sensing etc.

In case of Passive remote sensing sensors detect and record

variation of solar or terrestrial origin in the visible, infra-red and
microwave wave bands.
Based on technology used, Remote Sensing can be broadly
divided in two categories.

(i) Aerial Photography

(ii) Satellite Remote Sensing
Aerial Photography is the original form of remote sensing
and remains the most widely used methods. Aerial
Photography analyses have played major roles in discovery
of many oil and mineral deposits around the world.

Aerial photographs are acquired with the help of specially

designed cameras which are mounted on the aircraft. These
aircrafts fly over the ground and record the photographs of
the area.
In case of Satellite remote sensing, sensors are mounted on
the satellites which record the reflectance value from various
objects and forms a digital image. The satellites revolve
around the earth at several hundred kilometers from the
earth’s surface. This can be treated a form of active remote
sensing.
Aerial Photograph of Tokyo (Japan)
Portion of Ranchi Town
Sensor
FOV

IFOV
Satellite Image
Satellite
Sensors
4
1 3
2
IR Band
Blue Band 3 32 52 10 2 15
18 13 100 12 120
Green Band 21 65 2 62 15
50 30 13 156 56
42 205 161 45 21
18 23 13 12 210
19 61 13 0 37
Red Band 70 20 53 56 56
1 0 1 2 2 62 15 32 251 161 45 21
18 23 13 12 210 42 151 21 10 31
0 0 3 56 56
0 2 2 2 15
32 255 1 61 45 21
8 23 2 12 120
42 61 21 0 31
0 0 3 56 56
32 255 61 45 21
No of Lines ->

12 61 213 0 31

No. of Pixels ->

Each scan line of a remotely sensed image is
a digital or numerical record of radiance
measurements made at regular interval
along the line. A set of consecutive scan lines
thus forms an image.
Image data thus numerical in nature can be
processed with the help of computers to
derive the meaningful information.
Geo-Stationary Satellite
The satellite’s orbital velocity is just sufficient to
keep pace with the rotation of earth.

Sun-Synchronous Satellite
They acquire the image of specific portion of the
earth at a fixed local sun time.
Satellite Data Format : BIP (Band Interleaved by Pixel)
BIL (Band Interleaved by Line)
BSQ (Band Sequential)

Histogram : A graph between the Grey-Values (intensity values)

& corresponding frequencies

Signal : Actual radiations measured in the image.

Noise : Unwanted signals recorded in the image.

Raster & Vector Data
Resolution

Spatial : Smallest possible feature that can be detected. This

area on the ground is called the resolution cell and
determines a sensor’s maximum spatial resolution.
IRS 1C - 23.5 X 23.5 (LISS III)
5.88 X 5.88 (PAN)

Spectral : Individual images have been separately recorded in

discrete spectral bands. The term spectral resolution
refer to the width of these spectral band

Radiometric: Refers to the number of digital level used to express

the data collected by the sensors.

Temporal : The revisit period of a satellite sensor.

Multi-spectral Scanning
Panchromatic Scanning
Satellite Image of Patna as viewed By IKONOS
Satellite Image of Patna Airport as viewed By IKONOS
Digital Image Processing

• Image Pre-processing

• Image Enhancements

• Image Classification
IMAGE PRE-PROCESSING

Remote Sensing image, acquired by satellite/aircraft

have various geometric distortions.

These errors may be due to :

• the curvature and rotation of the earth

• the motion of the scanning system
• the motion and (in)stability of the platform
Pre-processing operation :

•Radiometric Correction [ For Sensor & Platform

specific errors]

•systematic striping or banding and dropped lines.

•Geometric Correction/Registration [ for Geo-metric

distortion of data ].
The geometric correction/registration process involves
identifying the image coordinates (i.e. row, column) of several
clearly discernible points, called ground control points
(GCPs), in the distorted image and matching them to their
true position in ground coordinates (e.g. latitude,longitude).

The true ground coordinates are typically measured from a

map either in paper or digital format. This is image -to-map
registration.

Geometric registration may also be performed by registering

one (or more) images to another image, instead of to
geometric coordinates. This is called image-to-image
registration.
IMAGE ENHANCEMENT

Used to make it easier for visual interpretation and analysis of

imagery.

Contrast Enhancement : The visual quality of an image can be

improved if the contrast (intensity values) between the darkest and
the lightest parts of image is enhanced.

Raw Image, having contrast values between 17-80, If we map these

intensity values on 0-255 scale , the visual quality of image will
enhanced.
 Raw Satellite Image

Enhanced Satellite Image

Spatial Filtering :

Spatial filters are designed to highlight or suppress

specific features in an image based on their spatial
frequency. There are two main types of filtering
techniques suited to different types of applications.

1. Low Pass Filtering or Noise Removal Filtering

2. High Pass Filtering or Edge Detection Filtering
Low Pass Filtering or Noise Removal Filtering

A Low-pass filter is designed to remove the noise/low

frequency components from the image. These filters
are also called smoothing filters. These are :

• Mean
• Mode
• Median
High Pass Filtering or Edge Detection
Filtering
A High-pass filter is designed to suppress high frequency
components from the image. Directional, or edge detection filters
are designed to highlight linear features, such as roads,fields or
water body boundaries.

Some of these filters are :

• Laplacian
• Robert
• Kirsch
• Sobel
• Prewitt
• Highboost
IMAGE CLASSIFICATION
Image classification is used to classify the satellite imagery into
actual land classes/categories. Classification may be very useful for
the identification of different kind of crops, different forest types or
tree species, different geologic units or rock type, water spread, etc.

Classification is divided into two broad categories, these are :-

Supervised classification : In this method the analyst provide/

identify representative samples (also referred to as training sample
area) of different surface cover type of interest. Based on the
training sample area the processing is done over the imagery to get
the classified image.
Unsupervised Classification :

In this method the programs, called clustering algorithms,

are used to determine the natural (statistical) grouping or
structures in the data. Usually in this process the analyst
specify only the desired number of classes. In addition the
analyst may specify parameters related to the separation
distance among the clusters and the variation within each
cluster. If the image geometry is transformed so as to
match a known coordinate system, the resultant classified
image is in form of a thematic map and is suitable for
export as an input to a digital Geographical information
system (GIS).
Spatial Data Infrastructure for
Multi-layer GIS Planning
Extraction of thematic layers:

The core objective of this Planning Commission project is to develop 23

basic thematic layers at 1:50,000 scale for the entire country for planning process,
management of resources.
These layers are as follows:
11. Drainage
1. Administrative Boundaries 12. Agriculture
2. Village Locations and boundaries 13. Forest
3. Contours 14. Soil
4. Elevation Height 15. Landuse/Landcover
5. Misc. Point data sets with attributes 16. Wasteland
6. Major Towns /Cities ,etc 17. Wetland
7. Settlements 18. Geology
8. Railway Lines 19. Hydrogeomorphology/Geology
9. Road 20. Slope,Aspect and Relief
10. Water Bodies 21. DEM
22. Watershed
23. Ground Water
 Satellite  data  is  an  important  source  of  information 
about  land  cover  and  land  use.  The  layers  extracted  from  it 
either form an end layer or an input layer for further analysis 
into GIS. The data from IRS series satellites are supplied by 
NRSA, Hyderabad. Following datasets from different types of 
sensors been procured for this project:

AWIFS ­ Covering entire country
LISS­III  ­ Covering entire country
PAN ­ Covering entire country
Quickbird ­ Selective areas, covering the Distt. Hdqrs.
Cartosat­1 – Selective areas - few hilly terrains
Sensor: AWIFS Swath: 125 *  Spectral  Bands 
125 K (in microns) :
Spatial  0.52­0.59
Resolution: 50m Total All India  0.62­0.68
tiles: 394 0.77­0.86
1.55 ­ 1.70
Sensor: LISS­III Spectral Bands:
Swath: 125 * 125  0.52 - 0.59
Spatial  Resolution:  Km 0.62 - 0.68
23.5m 0.77 - 0.86
Total All India tiles:  1.55 - 1.70
394 @ Rs. 22500  
Sensor: Pan Spectral Band:
0.50 - 0.75
Swath: 31.25  * 
Spatial  Resolution:   
31.25  Km
5.8m
Total All India tiles: 
3491 @ Rs.12300 
Sensor:  Spatial  Resolution:  Spectral Band:
Both  multi­spectral  0.6m  
and  panchromatic  PAN:0.6m PAN: 450-900 nm
imagery  available  for  Multi: 2m
the same area.  MULTI: 4 bands
Cost:1sq.  Km  @  Rs 
1000/­ 
Sensor: Cartosat Spatial  Resolution:  Spectral Band:
2.5m 0.5 – 0.85  
20­24  Distt.  HQ  of  hilly 

terrain
Infrastructure layers for Punjab
Guidelines for Data ordering

To obtain satellite data, users have to specify their area of interest. 

This may be:
a city 
a district 
a state 
any contiguous area
 
This can also be specified in terms of: 
latitude / longitude of corners of a polygon 
path / row number (obtained from a referencing scheme map) 
map sheet number (as per Survey of India SOI nomenclature)

For more information on the procedure to procure, visit the link:
http://www.nrsa.gov.in/products/area_coverage.html