Foreword to the Special Issue on the Analysis of Multitemporal Remote Sensing Images

Remote sensing imagery is an essential source of information for monitoring change over large and small areas on Earth. Arguably, the most significant contribution that remote sensing makes to Earth observation is its ability to monitor changes in a repetitive, synoptic, and numerical manner. The satellite-image archive now stretches back some 40 years, with airborne products available well before that. Ever better, new and archived data, high in both quantity and quality, are now available. Advanced techniques for multitemporal analysis are on the cutting edge of research, whereas operational tools are available in commercial image-analysis software systems. Decision makers and the public demand better information about the environment and human activity that can be supplied by modeling trends, changes, and cycles using multitemporal remotely sensed images.