Today I came up with a document that used the term satellite-based earth observation (SBEO). I find the term is highly redundant, because in my mind, Earth Observation (EO) is the subset of remote sensing that is done from space. Then I read this in the Wikipedia article on EO:
"The term Earth observation is used in two ways, leading to confusion. In Europe, in particular, it has often been used to refer to satellite-based remote sensing, but the term is also used to refer to any form of observations of the Earth system, including in situ and airborne observations, for example. The Group on Earth Observations, which has over 100 member countries and over 100 participating organizations, uses EO in this broader sense.
To add to the confusion, in the US, for example, the term remote sensing is often used to refer to satellite-based remote sensing, but sometimes used more broadly for observations using any form of remote sensing technology, including airborne sensors and even ground-based sensors such as cameras. Perhaps the least ambiguous term to use for satellite-based sensors is satellite remote sensing, or SRS, an acronym which is gradually starting to appear in the literature."
Have you ever used the term SRS, and do you think SRS should be favored over EO, or what else can be done to reduce confusion?
NB. I use 'spaceborne' instead of 'satellite' for the 1st 'S' in SRS because the International Space Station (ISS) is used as remote sensing platform and most people would not consider the ISS a 'satellite'.
"Not Exactly" but you may enjoy:
Preprint A New Model of “Color” Vision for Remote Sensing
I think remote sensing (RS) can be a very broad term, and earth observation (EO) is a narrower definition that is closer to what we often mean. If you asked a random sample of people what RS and EO are, I think most of them would struggle to define RS and be more correct within defining EO.
RS by definition can mean any form of observing or defining something from some sort of distance, so looking, smelling, and hearing are all included. I assume most of us are not referring to smelling dinner cooking, and are instead trying to observe the earth. In this way I think the definition is a bit too broad, though it has become limited by semantic drift.
Most of the 'remote sensing' field is interested in Earth observation, although this does exclude other planetary bodies (though one could argue they are sufficiently different and should have their own field). I don't necessarily like adding the 'satellite' or 'spaceborne' term beforehand as their are plenty of data and studies using airborne photography and terrestrial scanning systems.
All that being said, I have always used the term remote sensing in publications. It is hard to use a different definition from your colleagues, especially when there is a national remote sensing society but not an earth observation one. Interestingly, the Canadian federal government often defines their satellite program as 'earth observation satellites', not a remote sensing system.
Useful paper:
Article Integration of satellite remote sensing data in ecosystem mo...
I have worked at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità of Rome (Italy) and I have used Remote Sensing Techniques (Photography and Thermography) for the Observation of Earth (studies on Landfills, on the Pollution of Bathing Sites, on sea water pollution by coastal industrial sites, on algal blooms, on Vegetation, etc.).
Due to the small size of the targets, I couldn't use satellite data but I flew a thermal scanner and up to 4 Hasselblad cameras from low height using helicopters and the Goodyear dirigible.
Remote Sensing implies the idea of "measure": for this even an austronaut just looking at the Earth from the International Space Station is not making Remote Sensing but if he is looking after a target is doing Observation of Earth, otherwise he just looks at the Earth.
This justifies the Canadian program name "Earth Observation Satellite" and the name of the Landsat series satellites whose original name was ERTS1 (Earth Resources Technology Satellite 1): a satellite equipped with Remote Sensing Apparatus doing Earth (Resources) Observation.
With the improvement, simplification and miniaturization of apparatus, Remote Sensing techniques have been applied from the Space, from airplanes, from helicopters and from others platform: a forest ranger looking at his woods with a thermal camera from a platform on a hill to detect early fire is not making Remote Sensing?
The fact that Remote Sensing is made from the Space, from a plane, from a platform et similia can be easily understood from the text.
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