Fields

Satellite Remote Sensing

Satellite remote sensing acquires physical and biological information about Earth from orbital platforms, providing consistent global observations that no ground network could replicate. The Sentinel constellation of the Copernicus Earth Observation Programme delivers free multi-resolution imagery at multi-day repeat intervals, democratizing land cover mapping, agricultural monitoring, and disaster response. Synthetic aperture radar penetrates cloud cover and operates day and night, enabling deforestation detection in the humid tropics. Hyperspectral sensors discriminate vegetation stress, soil composition, and mineral deposits from spectral signatures. Cloud computing platforms like Google Earth Engine make petabytes of satellite archives accessible for global-scale analysis. Remote sensing is foundational to climate science, urban planning, food security monitoring, and environmental law enforcement.

Details

Avg Funding

$580K

Key Technologies

Sentinel Satellite ConstellationMODISSynthetic Aperture RadarGoogle Earth EnginePlanet Labs Constellation

Subfields

Optical Remote SensingSAR ImagingHyperspectral AnalysisLiDAR MappingClimate Data Records

Top Institutions

NASA Jet Propulsion LaboratoryESA ESRINDLR German Aerospace CenterUniversity of Maryland GLADETH Zürich Remote Sensing