Vineesh V, Geography

1. Radar and Radar Remote Sensing RADAR stands for Radio Detection and Ranging . It is an active remote sensing system that transmits microwave energy toward the Earth's surface and records the energy that is returned to the sensor as an echo or backscatter . Unlike passive optical remote sensing, radar does not depend on sunlight. Therefore, it can operate day and night and, at suitable wavelengths, can acquire data through clouds, haze and light rain. Hence, radar is widely described as an all-weather, day-and-night remote sensing technology . Basic principle Microwave pulse → transmission → interaction with surface → backscatter/echo → antenna receives signal → signal processing → radar image 2. Microwave Energy Radar systems use microwave electromagnetic radiation , generally in wavelength ranges from approximately 1 mm to 1 m . Important radar bands include: Band Approx. wavelength Common applications ...

T wo major ways of studying Geography : the Regional Approach and the Systematic Approach . It also explains the related ideas of idiographic vs. nomothetic and inductive vs. deductive reasoning , especially in the context of the Hartshorne–Schaefer debate . 1. Regional Geography: “All About One” Regional Geography studies one particular region in detail . A region is an area that has some degree of homogeneity (sameness) within its boundary but is also unique or different from other regions . For example, if we study Palakkad District , we may study: Relief and drainage Climate Soil Vegetation Agriculture Population Occupation Economy Culture Political characteristics The purpose is to understand the complete geographical personality of Palakkad and the relationships among its different features. Key concepts Region: A geographical area with identifiable characteristics and boundaries. Homogeneity: Si...

Landsat → Land resources SPOT → High-resolution mapping IRS → Indian natural-resource mapping ASTER → Geology + thermal + DEM QuickBird → Very high spatial resolution MODIS → Daily global monitoring GOES → Weather monitoring AVHRR → Weather + vegetation + ocean AVIRIS → Hyperspectral imaging Highest spectral resolution: AVIRIS (224 narrow bands) Highest spatial resolution in this list: QuickBird (~0.61 m PAN) Highest temporal frequency: GOES (minutes) Best broad global monitoring: MODIS Indian sensors: IRS-LISS III and LISS IV Hyperspectral: AVIRIS Thermal + multispectral + DEM: ASTER abbreviations MSS – Multispectral Scanner System TM – Thematic Mapper ETM+ – Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus GOES – Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite AVHRR – Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer HRV – High Resolution Visible HRVIR – High Resolution Visible and Infrared HRG – High Resolution Geometric ...

The main idea is how a remote-sensing sensor collects information about an area . A sensor does not simply take an ordinary photograph. It measures the electromagnetic energy reflected or emitted by objects in different wavelength bands . Depending on how many bands are measured and how the sensor collects them, different imaging systems are used. 1. Multispectral vs. Hyperspectral Multispectral imaging (MSI) records information in a limited number of relatively broad, separate spectral bands , such as blue, green, red, near-infrared and shortwave infrared. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) records information in many narrow and usually contiguous spectral bands . Therefore, it provides a much more detailed spectral signature of each pixel. The resulting dataset is commonly called a hyperspectral data cube (hypercube) because it contains: X-axis → spatial information Y-axis → spatial information Z-axis → wavelength/spectral information Thus, hype...