Remote Sensing

Lecture content:

During the last decades, remote sensing has developed into one of the most important tools to collect the data on our environment necessary to get a better understanding of the state of our environment and its change. This rapid progress was possible due to the technological improvements in sensor performance and the availability of Earth orbiting platforms (satellites) offering global coverage in short time intervals at reasonable cost. With very few exceptions remote sensors make use of the electromagnetic spectrum over the wavelength range extending from 30 cm (microwaves) to 0.3 µm (ultraviolet).

The course will introduce the theoretical background like interaction of electromagnetic radiation with matter (spectroscopy), radiative transfer and data processing. Furthermore the different measuring techniques will be discussed in quite some detail. This includes sensors measuring thermal emission, instruments detecting backscattered light and active techniques based on the RADAR principle. The course content will be illustrated by a large number of examples available and in use in the different research groups of the Institute of Environmental Physics, covering the atmosphere, ice and ocean. Within the modul "Measurement Techniques" some practica focus on Remote Sensing while the module "Remote Sensing I" provides the more in depth insight into the related techniques and research.