Remote sensing problems to solve

There are tens of satellites in orbit as well as aircraft that take remotely sensed
images of the earth. On a given day, thousands of images are taken of a particular
area but only some can be used to study a specific problem. The type of imagery
used depends on the four resolutions (spatial, spectral, temporal and radiometric).
No remote sensing sensor has the optimal of all the resolutions because of the cost
of designing the instrument and the data transfer rate from the satellite to the
ground. The resolutions need to be traded off in order to get the imagery you want.
Spatial Resolution What is the pixel size?
Spectral Resolution What wavelengths does the sensor observe and how many
bands?
Temporal Resolution How often does the sensor take an image or a given location?
Radiometric Resolution How many gray-scales does each band have?
It is your job to design a research study to research the issues below. Different types
of imagery and spatial resolutions need to be used to address each of the problems
based on the four resolutions. Discuss why you chose the sensor that you did and,
in your analysis, show how the four resolutions apply to the problem. Be sure to
include the type of imagery as well as its characteristics of the sensor: spatial
resolution, repeat time, spectral bands and radiometric precision. Finally, calculate
the size of the image given the spectral bands used, number of images and
radiometric resolution.
Environmental Problems to Study
Harmful algal bloom in Grand Lake St. Marys
Melting of the polar ice cap tracking the annual cycle of ice in the Arctic Ocean
Tracking and prediction of Hurricane Joachin
Flooding in Toledo, i.e. develop a new flood map using a high resolution DEM (digital
elevation model)
Wild fires in California 2015 the burn scar
Present your results on Oct. 12
Extension
Analyze the other three environmental problems that you did not study for the first
assignment and give an alternative sensor to use from the one presented to study
the problem. Write up the same type of analysis that you did for the first
assignment.
Present your results on Oct. 14
4 groups
Justin, Tim, Olivia - Grand Lake St Marys
Katherine, Travis - Ice cap
Madusanka, Shakhawat Hurricane Joachin
Kishor, Tajminur Flooding in Toledo
Raj, Nick Wild fires in California 2015

Modis

Spatial Resolution
250 m (bands 12) 500 m (bands 37)
1000m (bands 836)
MODIS bands 1, 4, and 3 can clearly identify the distribution of the bloom in the Bay
by its conspicuous bright color
Harmful algal blooms (HABs)

Multi-spectral MODIS data from the NASA Terra and Aqua satellites is now available
at full resolution, at no cost and in almost real time. However, most HABs occur in
coastal zones and have scales that are too small for the typical 1 km pixel size of
ocean color sensors. Moreover, standard products from ocean color sensors either
do not work at all or are highly inaccurate in coastal zones in typical HAB conditions
1

250m

0.620-0.670

Land-cover classification, clorophyll

Arctic sea Ice