Name of the Presentation

Remote sensing:

“the measurement or acquisition

of information of some property
of an object or phenomenon, by
a recording device that is not in
physical or intimate contact with
the object or phenomenon under
study” (Colwell, 1997).

2/2/2024 1
 Name of the Presentation

Now……
Obtaining the Characteristic
Optical Properties of objects from
images/profiles/sounders for Very
Precise Physico-Chemical-
Biological Identification and
estimate the kinetics/kinematics of
Process/Phenomena of interest
without any physical contact.

What are the Physical Properties

Radiance What are the Physical/Chemical/biochemical
Reflectance Parameters?
Transmittance Elemental Chemistry
Absorptance Molecular Chemistry
Emissivity Structure/Texture
Thermal Conductivity Biotic/abiotic stress
Thermal Inertia Productivity
Dielectric Constant Gas plume Composition
Surface temperature, subsidence
Optical Depth
What are the Mathematics Involved ?
Partial Derivation and Integration (eg. Radiative Transfer Equations)
Vector Algebra (PCA, OSP, MNF, PPI, unmixing, Point Clouds……)
Neural Network & Fuzzy logic (classification, target identification)
Applications Potential
From Searching Life in Mars to estimation of Construction
Quality of buildings in IITB

2/2/2024 2
 Name of the Presentation

Electromagnetic Energy Electromagnetic Spectrum

Shorter Wavelengths V / NIR / SWIR / Longer

High Energy MWIR / LWIR Wavelengths
Low Energy

Optical
Cosmic Gamma X Microwaves Radio & Television
Rays Rays Rays Region
UV (Radar) Waves

Wavelength
(nm) 10-5 10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 10 101 400 14000 105 106 107 108 109 1010 1011 1012

Reflected Emitted
Energy Energy

B G R NI SWIR MWIR LWIR LWIR

Wavelength R
(nm) 400 700 1500 3000 5000 14000
(m) 0.4 0.7 1.5 3.0 5.0 14.0

KNOW THE TREE BEFORE EATING THE

FRUIT
• SPATIAL RESOLUTION
• SPECTRAL RESOLUTION
• RADIOMETRIC RESOLUTION
• NOISE EQUIVALENT SIGNAL
• CALIBRATION
• DISTORITIONS AND DISPLACEMENTS
• DOMAIN UNDERSTANDING (PROCESS)
• ERROR ANALYSIS AND ERROR PROPAGATION

2/2/2024 3
 Name of the Presentation

SPATIAL RESOLUTION

80 X 80m 20 X 20m 10 X 10m

0.5 X 0.5m

Spatial Resolution : All about Identifiability of an object

2/2/2024 4
 Name of the Presentation

Spatial Resolutions are Relevant to Mapability in a particular

scale of mapping

Spatial Resolutions of Visible, Near infra red and Thermal

Infra red bands of ASTER data are 15, 30 and 90m respectively.
Calculate optimum scale of mapping for each of the bands.

Who is this?
What is the colour of her dress?

 = 0.52-0.62µm  = 0.62-0.72µm  = 0.42-0.52µm

SPECTRAL RESOLUTION

2/2/2024 5
 Name of the Presentation

What is the Composition of her

dress, wristwatch chain?

……….If you can answer above questions,

you have done Remote Sensing VERY
Effectively ..
“ It involves retrieving physical attributes
without getting in touch with the object
and involves measurement of Reflected,
Emitted and Transmitted Energies”

Spectral Resolution : Ability to identify/discriminate the material or

knowing the composition of the target

Panchromatic
(Broad Bandwidth)
Several Micro meters
Blue Green Red
(0.4µm) (0.5µm) (0.6µm)

Multispectral
(Narrow Bandwidth)
A few micrometer
Blue Green Red
(0.4µm) (0.5µm) (0.6µm)

Hyperspectral
(Very Narrow Bandwidth)
Few nanometers
Blue Green Red
(0.4µm) (0.5µm) (0.6µm)

2/2/2024 6
 Name of the Presentation

Spectral
Resolution

• Bandwidth
• FWHM

Spectral Resolution Band 7 (2.08 – 2.35m)

Landsat-TM-5 Band 6 (10.40 – 12.5m)

Band 5 (1.55 – 1.75m)

Band 4 (0.76 – 0.90m)

Band 3 (0.63 – 0.69m)

Band 2 (0.52 – 0.60m) B-7

Band 1 (0.45 – 0.52m)

B-5

2/2/2024 7
 Name of the Presentation

Hyperspectral Remote Sensing

Airborne Visible-
Infrared Imaging
Spectrometer (AVIRIS)
Datacube

OPTICAL REMOTE SENSING (0.4 – 15 µm)

High Spatial Resolution - Mostly Panchromatic (0.4- 0.7µm )

Moderate Spatial resolution – Multispectral (0.4 – 15 µm)

Coarse Spatial Resolution – Hyperspectral (0.4 – 15 µm)

Very Coarse Spatial Resolution – Thermal (8 – 15 µm)

NON OPTICAL REMOTE SENSING

Microwave ( few mm to cms)

2/2/2024 8
 Name of the Presentation

RADIOMETRIC RESOLUTION

RADIOMETRIC RESOLUTION : ALL ABOUT CAPACITY

TO RECORD VARIATION IN THE INTESITY OF ENERGY
AT A GIVEN WAVELENGHT

Electromagnetic Radiation Principles

2/2/2024 9
 Name of the Presentation

Electromagnetic Energy Interactions

Energy recorded by remote sensing systems undergoes fundamental

interactions that should be understood to properly interpret the remotely
sensed data. For example, if the energy being remotely sensed comes
from the Sun, the energy:
• is radiated by atomic particles at the source (the Sun),
• propagates through the vacuum of space at the speed of light,
• interacts with the Earth's atmosphere,
• interacts with the Earth's surface,
• interacts with the Earth's atmosphere once again, and
• finally reaches the remote sensor where it interacts with various
optical systems, filters, emulsions, or detectors.

Energy-matter
interactions in the
atmosphere, at the
study area, and at
the remote sensor
detector

2/2/2024 10
 Name of the Presentation

Electromagnetic Radiation Models

To understand how electromagnetic radiation is created, how it

propagates through space, and how it interacts with other matter,
it is useful to describe the processes using two different models:

• the wave model, and

• the particle model.

Electromagnetic energy is a
mixture of waves with
different frequencies.

Each wave represents a group of particles with the same frequency. All
together they have different frequencies and magnitudes.

Wave Model of Electromagnetic Energy

The relationship between the wavelength, , and frequency, , of

electromagnetic radiation is based on the following formula, where c
is the speed of light: (Maxwell)

Note that frequency,   is inversely proportional to wavelength, 

This equation explains that the shorter wavelength has higher spectral
frequency .

2/2/2024 11
 Name of the Presentation

Wave Model of Electromagnetic Radiation

The electromagnetic wave consists of two
fluctuating fields—one electric and the
other magnetic. The two vectors are at
right angles (orthogonal) to one another,
and both are perpendicular to the direction
of travel.

The Amplitude (A) reflects the level of the

electromagnetic energy.

It may also be considered as intensity or

spectral irradiance.

If we plot A against the wavelength we

then get an electromagnetic curve, or
spectrum

Three fundamental concepts

The first theory treats electromagnetic radiation as many discrete particles called
photons or quanta (terms in Physics). The energy of a quantum is given by

E = h

Where, E energy of a quantum (Joules), h = 6.626 x 10-34 (Planck's constant),

 = frequency

Since, E = hc/

So energy of a quantum is inversely related to wavelength.

If we want to sense emittance from objects at longer wavelength, we will have to

either use very sensitive devices or view a larger area to get sufficient amount of
energy.

Related to the spatial resolution.

2/2/2024 12
 Name of the Presentation

The second radiation theory is Stephen Boltzmann Law

The total emitted radiation (Ml) from a blackbody is proportional to the fourth
power of its absolute temperature. This is known as the Stefan-Boltzmann law and is
expressed as:

where s is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant, 5.6697 x 10 -8 W m-2 K 4. Thus, the

amount of energy emitted by an object is a function of its temperature.
For any matter, we can measure its emitting energy (M), and compare it with the
energy emitted from a blackbody at the same temperature (Mb) by

A perfect reflector will have nothing to emit. Therefore, its  will be "0". A true
blackbody has an  of 1. Most other matters fall in between these two extremes.

The third theory is Wien's displacement law which specifies the relationship between
the peak wavelength of emittance and the temperature of a matter.

In addition to the total amount of energy exiting a blackbody, we can determine its
dominant wavelength (max) based on

where k is a constant equaling 2898 mm K, and T is the absolute temperature in

kelvin.

Sun approximates a 6000 K blackbody, its dominant wavelength (max ) is : ???

2/2/2024 13
 Name of the Presentation

Blackbody Radiation Curves

Blackbody radiation curves for several objects

including the Sun and the Earth which
approximate 6,000 K and 300 K blackbodies,
respectively.

The area under each curve may be summed to

compute the total radiant energy (M) exiting
each object.

Thus, the Sun produces more radiant exitance

than the Earth because its temperature is
greater.

As the temperature of an object increases, its

dominant wavelength (max ) shifts toward the
shorter wavelengths of the spectrum.

Radiant Intensity
of the Sun

2/2/2024 14
 Name of the Presentation

What do these numbers

representing each pixel of
the image mean?

TRUE COLOUR COMPOSITE

FALSE COLOUR COMPOSITE

2/2/2024 15
 Name of the Presentation

These are digital numbers (DN) / brightness values (BV)

and they can not be directly interpreted for any Scientific
Analysis.

It depends on

1. Instrument characteristics
2. Illumination
3. Ambience
4. Process flow quantization etc

DN values are converted to

(1) Reflectance (400 – 3000nm –Reflective Region)
(2) Emissivity (3000 – 14000nm -Emissive Region)

Irradiance and Exitance

The amount of radiant flux incident

upon a surface per unit area of that
surface is called Irradiance (E ),
where:

• The amount of radiant flux leaving

per unit area of the plane surface is
called Exitance (M ).

• Both quantities are measured in watts

per meter squared (W m-2).

2/2/2024 16
 Name of the Presentation

Radiance
Radiance (L) is the radiant flux per unit solid angle leaving an extended source in
a given direction per unit projected source area in that direction and is measured in
watts per meter squared per steradian (W m-2 sr -1 ). We are only interested in the
radiant flux in certain wavelengths (L) leaving the projected source area (A)
within a certain direction () and solid angle ():


L
cos

Energy Recorded In Visible Region

(Reflective Process)
Measured Physical Property = Reflectance
Governing Physics = Chemistry &
Surface Characters

Energy Recorded In IR Region

(Emission Process)
Property Measured = Emissivity ()
& Temp.(T)
Governing Physics= Chemistry &
Temperature

2/2/2024 17
 Name of the Presentation

Quantization

The process of scaling the radiance received at sensor

The DN values corresponding to 16 pixels of a Landsat5 Tm Band 3

(8 bit) data acquired on 15th May are given below. The Sun zenith
angle was 45o. Using the provided sensor calibration factors,
Calculate Radiance & Reflectance.

12 15 19 155
11 16 22 132
21 25 30 200
175 116 182 225
1 AU -149,597,871 kilometres

2/2/2024 18
 Name of the Presentation

Governing equation
Planck’s equation

Stefan-Boltzmann
equation

Emissivity—objects are not blackbodies

• Kirchhof’s Law: emissivity = absorptance

– Probability of emission of a photon at a given frequency
and angle is same as probability of absorption at same
frequency and angle
• Emissivity + Reflectance + Transmittance = 1
– (all functions of wavelength and angle)

So in case of all Emitted Energy Remote Sensing / Thermal

Remote Sensing, Radiance is equal to

2/2/2024 19
 Name of the Presentation

Definition of brightness
temperature TB

2/2/2024 20