Land Remote Sensing And Global Environmental Change

Land Remote Sensing and Global Environmental Change: The Science of ASTER and MODIS is an edited compendium of contributions dealing with ASTER and MODIS satellite sensors aboard NASA's Terra and Aqua platforms launched as part of the Earth Observing System fleet in 1999 and 2002 respectively. This volume is divided into six sections. The first three sections provide insights into the history, philosophy, and evolution of the EOS, ASTER and MODIS instrument designs and calibration mechanisms, and the data systems components used to manage and provide the science data and derived products. The latter three sections exclusively deal with ASTER and MODIS data products and their applications, and the future of these two classes of remotely sensed observations.

Remote Sensing plays a key role in monitoring the various manifestations of global climate change. It is used routinely in the assessment and mapping of biodiversity over large areas, in the monitoring of changes to the physical environment, in assessing threats to various components of natural systems, and in the identification of priority areas for conservation. This book presents the fundamentals of remote sensing technology, but rather than containing lengthy explanations of sensor specifications and operation, it concentrates instead on the application of the technology to key environmental systems. Each system forms the basis of a separate chapter, and each is illustrated by real world case studies and examples. Readership The book is intended for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in earth science, environmental science, or physical geography taking a course in environmental remote sensing. It will also be an invaluable reference for environmental scientists and managers who require an overview of the use of remote sensing in monitoring and mapping environmental change at regional and global scales. Additional resources for this book can be found at: http://www.wiley.com/go/purkis/remote.

Experts report the state of the art in the study of global climate change using remote sensing techniques. Topics covered include the principles of remote sensing, the management of data, data requirements in climatology, the principles of modelling, the input of data into models, and the application of remote sensing to the atmosphere, ice and snow, seas and land. The book is highly topical given the current great public and scientific awareness of possible man-made changes to the climate. It is essential reading for anyone new to the field, and invaluable as a reference work to those already working in it.

Global Change is increasingly considered a critical topic in environmental research. Remote sensing methods provide a useful tool to monitor global variables, since they provide a systematic coverage of the Earth’s surface, at different spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions. This book offers an analysis of the leading missions in global Earth observation, and reviews the main fields in which remote sensing methods are providing vital data for global change studies.

The chapters in this book present state-of-the-art geomatics technologies applied in global environmental studies. This text provides the latest research findings and delivers complete references to related publications. This book will motivate the undergraduate and graduate students, researchers and practitioners to better understand the environmental changes with informed solutions. Global Change studies are increasingly considered a vital source of information to understand the Earth Environment, especially in the framework of human-induced, climate change and land use transformation. Satellite Earth Observing systems and geomatics technologies provide a unique tool to monitor and model the changes, respectively. While the range of applications and innovative techniques are always increasing, this book provides a summary of key study cases where satellite data offers critical information to understand the usefulness of the geomatics technologies and global environmental issues. Geomatics technologies provide powerful tools to model and analyze the effects of those global environmental changes towards minimizing their adverse impacts on human health and the environment.

Geosphere-biosphere interaction of certain elements and compounds is a major factor in global environmental change. This guide to the role of geographical monitoring in ecosystem modelling contains papers presented at the International Geographical Union Seminar on monitoring geosystems.