Remote sensing of earth's resources using broadband electromagnetic response

Abstract

It is shown that the sun is a source of broadband electromagnetic waves. The electromagnetic wave generation and their interaction with material media is shown to play an important role in remote sensing studies. The physical parameters that characterise earth's resources govern the electromagnetic wave response and is shown to enhance the potentiality of active and passive remote sensing. Importance of active and passive remote sensing experiments is emphasised and is shown to provide basic ground truths and specimen signatures which form the backbone of data interpretation of ground-based and spaceborne remote sensing data. Examples of some recent remote sensing probing results such as soil moisture, surface roughness and vegetative canopy are shown to delineate their importance in remote sensing data interpretation. The development of synthetic aperture radar has brought in the desired improvement in refining the data processing. It is shown that the spaceborne remote sensing is capable of probing earth's interior resources only in a restricted sense. Ocean which is major part of global earth's surface is an important earth's resource and is beyond the scope of this review.