Fundamentals of Remote Sensing

Geography 4/518, Winter 2007

Instructor: Dr. W. Andrew Marcus

Lecture: T. Th 12:00-12:50, McKenzie 240B

Lab: T. Th 1:00-1:50 p.m., McKenzie 442 (SSIL Lab)

Office hours: Monday 10-11, Thursday 2-3

 

Geog 418/518 introduces you to remote sensing with digital imagery.  The course will cover:

 

                  (1)  the electro­magnetic spectrum, interactions between light and matter (including atmospheric effects) and the resul­tant electro­mag­netic sig­nals;

 

                  (2) the basic concepts and devices used to record electromag­netic signals and their relative advan­tages and disadvantag­es;

 

            (3) components of a digital image processing, including:

                        -  sources of image distortion and techniques used for image restoration;

                        -  techniques for enhancing images to better visualize spectral signals and patterns;

                                    -  the use of digital electro­magnetic data for classifica­tion, mapping, and monitoring hydro­logic and biologic pro­cesses and environmental change.

 

Lectures will cover all of the above topics.  Lab sessions will focus on learning to navigate through the software, on understanding how digital data can be translated into effective visualizations of the environment (image enhancement), on techniques for correcting problems with the imagery (image restoration), and on approaches for land cover mapping with remotely sensed imagery (image classification).

 

Required Background

 

To enroll in this class you must have taken introductory GIS (Geog 416)or be presently enrolled in the class.  If you have not taken the intro GIS class, you should withdraw from this class.

 

Grades

 

There will be two exams in the class, each worth 25% of your total grade.  Labs will make up the remaining 50% of the grade for undergraduates.  Labs will make up 45% of the grade for graduates.  In addition, graduate students will produce an annotated bibliography of remote sensing articles that makes up 5% of their grade.  This annotated bibliography will review research articles on a topic related to your thesis research, have at least 10 references, and follow basic guidelines that I will provide in a separate document.  For grading purposes, undergraduates and graduates will be split into two groups, with the highest grade in each group set as the bench mark.  Individuals within 10% of that mark will receive a grade in the A range, individuals 10 to 20% lower than the benchmark will receive a grade in the B range, and so on.  If the highest combined test and lab grade in the class is held by an undergraduate, then the undergraduate’s top mark will serve as the benchmark grade for the graduate students as well.

 

Labs and Lab Grades

 

Labs provide practical experience that is typical of what you will encounter on most any remote sensing project. All labs will be done using ERDAS Imagine, the most widely used remote sensing software.  Early labs will  familiarize you with the basic structure of the software.  Later labs will introduce you image enhancement (visualization) techniques, techniques for adding geographical coordinates to images, data transformation approaches to extract specific types of information, and classification approaches for mapping land cover.

 

Laboratory sessions will be in SSIL.  You will work on all labs in teams of two.  Each team will turn in just one lab assignment.  Labs turned in separately will not be graded (i.e., I really want you to work with one another on these assignments in order to exchange knowledge with your partners).

 

Labs must be turned in one week after they are as­signed -- otherwise you will receive a ZERO on the assignment unless you have made arrangements with me beforehand.  It is essen­tial that you complete the labs because many of them are sequen­tial and build on knowledge you have gained from the previous lab. You are encouraged to collaborate on labs with other teams and help one another out, but do not copy each others’ written answers. I expect all answers to be written legibly in complete sentences with all words correctly spelled.  Answers which do not meet these criteria will receive zero credit.

 

Always bring a zip disk or thumb drive to lab to back up your work at the end of class..  The hard drives at SSIL are periodically cleaned in order to keep enough space available and you may lose you past work if it is not backed up.

 

Required readings and materials

 

The required text book for the class is:

 

Campbell, James B., 2007, Introduction to remote sensing (4th edition), New York, The Guilford Press, 626 p.

 

In addition, on-line materials and  research articles may be assigned on the class web page. Labs and additional readings are provided on the web at:

 

http://geography.uoregon.edu/amarcus/geog418s07/index.html.