Comments on Remote Sensing

Since the term "remote sensing" has such a diverse usage, each particular case studied must be fully understood before one can properly define physical laws and limitations. Thus a logical step-by-step treatment of a remote sensing problem begins with a definition of the question which is subsequently followed by the physical requirements necessary to obtain the answer. Some of the limitations are imposed by environmental factors in addition to state-of-the-art instrumentation. Although many broad types of remote sensing techniques exist, the use of the electromagnetic spectrum appears to be the most promising and rewarding. Each band of the spectrum holds its own key to unlocking a particular answer required to define the state of the object under study. In each band several parameters are on hand, such as intensity, polarization, spatial and wavelength resolution. With such an enormous multitude of data available, perhaps the single most severe limitation appears to be data handling and synthesis. The problem can be greatly alleviated if a proper model is available to treat the data by a systematic method.