1. Christine Urbanowicz Prepared for NC Climate Fellows Workshop June 21, 2011

2. Outline  What is remote sensing?  Electromagnetic spectrum  Satellites and their application to climate change

3.  Identifying, observing, and measuring an object without coming into direct contact with it (NASA) What is remote sensing?

4. Activity Recap  After using infrared thermometers to characterize the landscape…  Were there any patterns in IR across the landscape?

5. Vs. Differences between ground IR data, aerial data, and satellite data?  Ease of data collection  Data extent, records  Spatial Resolution  Temporal Resolution  Spectral Resolution

6.  Did IR provide different information than visible wavelengths? Activity Recap

7. AA Electromagnetic Spectrum Gamma Rays X-Rays UVUV Infrared Radio Waves Visible Light

8. Electromagnetic Spectrum VisibleInfrared Reflectance Healthy Vegetation Building

9. Electromagnetic Spectrum

10. Tradeoffs in Sensor Design To increase the signal to noise ratio, we can :   Field of View   Dwell time   Width of spectral bands How do these changes affect the different resolutions?

11. So many satellites and sensors

12. Landsat Program  Temporal: 16 days  Spectral: 4-8 bands  Spatial: 30 m  Land cover and land cover change

13. MODIS (on two satellites)  Temporal: Daily  Spectral: 36 bands  Spatial: 250-1000 m  Global land cover and ocean RS  Fire monitoring

14. IKONOS  Temporal: On Demand  Spectral: 4 bands  Spatial: 1-4 m  Local land cover

15. JASON (Active)  Temporal: 10 days  Spectral: NA (Active)  Spatial: ~ 2 km  Sea level

16. Summary  Remote sensing allows us to observe and monitor the earth surface  Features on the ground can be interpreted using spectral information  Satellites have wide range of purposes

19. Sensor Platforms  Pigeons, Planes, and Satellites

20.  How might scientists use IR data to study the earth’s surface? Activity Recap Kohrs, Infrared Image