Looking around is noticeable the interpretation of a lot of knowledge fields either as a set of methods or a scientific discipline. Considering the vast areas of remote sensing, which may be clustered by operating spectral region (from X-ray to microwave remote sensing), can we consider it as a scientific discipline or only the study of methods for data collecting "without" physical contact?
Dear Erli Pinto dos Santos,
First of all, this is a very interesting question.Remote sensing is enjoying huge and diverse areas of application. The remote sensing images provide a very large observation space in which different disciples can model their phenomena of concern. As such, remote sensing appears as a set of methods used by different disciplines under different domains knowledge. On the other hand, remote sensing is a disciple on its own right. For example, the understanding of the sensor geometry, radiometry, spectral bands, bands modeling, bands dependency, calibration, georeferencing, orbit understanding, projection and how the remote sensing images can be combined with different sensors such as lidar required a very specialized set of knowledge, which are typically taught under the disciple of Geomatics or surveying engineering. Then from a Geomatics point of view the remote sensing can be viewed as a disciple.
Regards,
Gamal
Dear Gamal Seedahmed
Interesting point of view. What do you think about a definition of remote sensing while discipline being: the study and knowledge of interactions between natural and artificial targets with electromagnetic radiation? Could it be included in some of the descriptors you provided in your response, like sensor geometry, radiometry, spectral bands, etc.?
Dear Erli Pinto dos Santos
Many definitions were conceived during the era of manual photo-interpretation were the notion of measurement was restricted to image coordinates and some aspects of the sensor modeling were conducted by the manufacturers or big labs. Now with era of of machine learning and many aspects of sensor modeling were transferred to the professional users, we do need to review the definitions of many sciences to account for the new reality. In photogrammetry and with use of metric analog cameras we used to have what is called the interior orientation as a very particular set of the internal camera parameters. Now these parameters are subset of camera calibration process. In some cases can be estimated as a standalone subset but the establishment of the point of symmetry radial distortions depends on the position of the principal point of the camera. There are so many examples along this line of thinking; and therefore, so many changes need to be made for the definitions of many sciences
Remote sensing technology is used in a wide variety of disciplines in thousands of different use cases, including most earth sciences, such as meteorology, geology, hydrology, ecology, oceanography, glaciology, geography, and in land surveying, as well as applications in military, intelligence, commercial, economic
Dear Gamal Seedahmed
I agree with you about the need to tackle the undefinition of many scientific fields. I believe remote sensing is one of them. Look at SAR remote sensing. SAR is a technique that evolved along recent decades, in methods of imaging (ScanSAR, TopSAR, etc.) and signal processing (processing of pulses in the time domain). But there is some more substantial related to SAR remote sensing that is the understanding of how vegetation (and different kinds of vegetations) interacts with microwave electromagnetic radiation. In any microwave band. And due this need, mathematical, statistical, and machine learning models are build to study the target behavior in front to microwave.
I think we are in front of a duality (as duality of electromagnetic radiation): for a set of another scientific disciplines, as mentioned by M. Kamraju , remote sensing is employed. But to remote sensing itself, it is a science.
Humans have five senses smell, sight, hearing, touch, and taste. We use all of them to sense our environment to find out what is going on out there. We develop our senses as best we can, anything we can to better understand the world—for example, chemicals to better smell, cyclotrons to better see, amplifiers to better hear, tools to better probe, and aperitifs to better taste. For the most part, we remotely sense our environment. Do we use disciplines or methods in remote sensing?
Como investigador te dire que no es un método y que se aplica en muchas disciplinas de la actividad científica y es un conjunto de tecnológias muy poderosas para toda la avtividad humana.
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