Books on Remote Sensing & GIS

There are many books available on remote sensing and GIS. Here is brief introduction of some of these books which are useful for learning and understanding basics of remote sensing and GIS. 

Title: Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation 

by T.M. Lillesand and R.W. Kiefer John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York 

A must have. One of the best books on Remote Sensing highly recommended for beginners. It is like 'Bible' of Remote Sensing. Good reference material for experts also. All the aspects of remote sensing and image interpretation are discussed in details with all fundamental concepts. 

Title: Remote Sensing of the Environment: An Earth Resource Perspective 

by John R Jensen Pearson Education, Inc. 

This book contains thirteen chapters. Basic principals of remote sensing for environment are discussed in depth. There are separate chapters for visual image interpretation, aerial photography and photogrammetry. 

Title: Introduction to Remote Sensing 

by James B. Cambell Taylor & Francis 

Another good book on remote sensing fundamentals and basics. 

Title: Introductory Digital Image Processing: A Remote Sensing Perspective 

by John R Jensen Prentice Hall, New Jersey 

Another good work from John R. Jensen. This book is a must for learning image processing of digital satellite images. 

Title: Principles of Geographical Information System for Land Resource Assessment 

by P.A. Burrough Oxford University Press 

This is a fundamental book for understanding basic concepts of GIS. 

Title: Geographical Information System 

Volume I: Principal and Technical Issues 

Volume II: Management Issues and Applications 

Edited by P.A. Longley, M.F. Goodchild, D.J. Manguire, D.W. Rhino John Wiley & Sons 

These two volumes contain chapters on principles, management and applications of GIS. A number of experts contributed in these to discuss and unfold various aspects of GIS and its applications in detail.

Title: The GIS Book 

by George B Korte Onword Press, Thomson Learning, Inc. 

What this book offers to you is written on its cover page itself- “How to implement, manage and assess the value of Geographical Information System".

Please see INDEX for complete list of topics.

What is Remote Sensing?

Remote sensing, in simplest words, means acquiring information about an object without touching the object itself. Conventionally, however remote sensing has come to imply that the sensor and the target are located remotely apart and the electromagnetic radiation serves as a link between the sensor and the object, the sun being the major source of energy illuminating the earth. The part of this energy is reflected, absorbed and transmitted by the surface. A sensor records the reflected energy.

Remote Sensing is performed using an instrument, often referred to as a sensor. Most of the remote sensing instruments record electromagnetic radiation (EMR) that travels at a velocity of 3x10⁸ ms^-1 from the source, directly through the vacuum of space or indirectly by reflection or reradiation to the sensor. The EMR represents an extremely efficient high-speed communication link between the sensor and the remotely located objects. Changes in the amount and the properties of the EMR become, upon detection by the sensor, a valuable source of data for interpreting important properties of the phenomena.

Photography is also Remote Sensing

Remote sensing can then be defined as-

The technique of acquiring information about an object by a recording device (sensor) that is not in physical contact with the object by measuring portion of reflected or emitted electromagnetic radiation from the earth’s surface.

Trivia-
["Your Eye is also a Remote Sensing Device".. never thought this right? So what about a mobile camera or DSLR?? ]

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Types of Remote Sensing

Based on Source of energy

The sun provides a very convenient source of energy for remote sensing. The sun’s energy is either reflected, as it is for visible wavelength or absorbed and then re-emitted (for thermal infrared wavelength).

Remote sensing systems, which measure this naturally available energy, are called passive sensors. This can only take place when the sun is illuminating the earth. There is no reflected energy available from the sun at night. Energy that is naturally emitted can be detected day and night provided that the amount of energy is large enough to be recorded.

Remote sensing systems, which provide their own source of energy for illumination, are known as active sensors. These sensors have the advantage of obtaining data any time of day or season. Solar energy and radiant heat are examples of passive energy sources. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an example of active sensor.

Based on Range of Electromagnetic Spectrum

Optical Remote Sensing

The optical remote sensing devices operate in the visible, near infrared, middle infrared and short wave infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. These devices are sensitive to the wavelengths ranging from 300 nm to 3000 nm. Most of the remote sensors record the EMR in this range, e.g., bands of IRS P6 LISS IV sensor are in optical range of EMR.

Thermal Remote Sensing

The sensors, which operate in thermal range of electromagnetic spectrum record, the energy emitted from the earth features in the wavelength range of 3000 nm to 5000 nm and 8000 nm to 14000 nm. The previous range is related to high temperature phenomenon like forest fire, and later with the general earth features having lower temperatures. Hence thermal remote sensing is very useful for fire detection and thermal pollution. e.g., the last five bands of ASTER and band 6 of Landsat ETM+ operates in thermal range.

Microwave Remote Sensing

A microwave remote sensor records the backscattered microwaves in the wavelength range of 1 mm to 1 m of electromagnetic spectrum. Most of the microwave sensors are active sensors, having there own sources of energy, e.g, RADARSAT.

These sensors have edge over other type of sensors, as these are independent of weather and solar radiations.