GP40. The Earth from Space: An Introduction to Remote Sensing

 

 

Course goal:  Introduce students to the subject of Earth remote sensing, with examples and illustrations from global climate change studies.

 

Who this course is aimed at:  Undergraduate students who are interested in the Earth's environmental change and spaceborne instrumentation. It is an introduction to the study of the Earth from space, and will cover the Earth as a system, spaceborne sensors that allow us to study that system globally, and the kinds of information that can be inferred from those sensors.  It will be of particular interest to those whose ultimate career goals include assessments of policy towards environmental concerns, as well as those interested in applying and building these systems.

 

Course description:  This course will serve as an introduction to remote sensing of the Earth as a system, with emphasis on global change. The coursework will be divided into three areas, i) the science behind global change and Earth system remote sensing, ii) spaceborne instrumentation for these measurements, and iii) remote sensing data and their analysis. We will introduce several major elements of the Earth system, including greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and global warming, water and energy cycles, the oceans, land surface ecosystems and the carbon cycle, glaciers and polar ice sheets, and the effect of volcanic activity on the global climate.  Hands-on experimentation with remote sensing images of the Bay Area to identify surface terrain types and land cover will provide an appreciation of what characteristics of the surface can be studied using spaceborne data. The insights gained examining local terrains will then be applied to data acquired over remote parts of the developing world to produce a comparative assessment of the local conditions and land use.  These will be combined in a comprehensive description of a satellite system including scientific issues, political motivations, and implementation challenges.