The public's serious concern about the uncertainties and dangers of the conse quences of human activities on environmental quality demands policies to control the situation and to prevent its deterioration. But far-reaching decisions on the environmental policy are impaired or even made impossible as long as the relevant ecological relations are not sufficiently understood and large-scale quantitative information on the most important parameters is not available in sufficient quality and quantity. The techniques of remote sensing offer new ways of procuring data on natural phenomena with three main advantages - the large distance between sensor and object prevents interference with the environmental conditions to be measured, - the potentiality for large-scale and even global surveys yields a new dimension for the investigations of the environmental parameters, - the extremely wide, spectral range covered by the whole diversity of sensors discloses many properties of the environmental media not detectable within a single wave band (as e.g. the visible). These significant additions to the conventional methods of environmental studies and the particular qualification of several remote sensing methods for quantitative determination of the natural parameters makes this new investigation technique an important tool both to the scientists studying the ecological relationship and the administration in charge of the environmental planning and protection.

Inhalt

1. Introductory Remarks on Remote Sensing.- 1.1 Application Areas of Remote Sensing.- 1.2 Sensing Systems.- 1.3 Remote Sensing and Spectral Constraints.- 2. Aerospace Photography.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 Characteristics of Photographic Process.- 2.3 Cameras and Films.- 2.4 Photographic Attributes of Earth Sciences.- 3 Infrared Sensing Methods.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 The Infrared Radiation Field.- 3.3 Fundamentals of Measurement.- 3.4 Methods of Measurement.- 3.5 Applications.- 3.6 Data Interpretation Error Sources.- 3.7 Expectations of the Near Future.- References.- 4 Laser Applications in Remote Sensing.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 Fundamentals of Physical Processes Involved.- 4.3 Instrumentation.- 4.4 Applications.- References.- 5 Radar Methods.- 5.1 General Aspects.- 5.2 Backgrounds.- 5.3 Applications.- 5.4 Conclusion.- References.- 6 Passive Microwave Sensing.- 6.1 Principles of Passive Microwave Remote Sensing.- 6.2 Instrumental Aspects of Microwave Radiometry.- 6.3 Emissive Properties of Materials on the Surface of the Earth.- 6.4 Remote Determination of Atmospheric Constituents by Their Microwave Spectra.- 6.5 Passive Microwave Remote Sensing of Water, Ice and Snow.- 6.6 Investigations of the Soil, Vegetation and Geological Features.- 6.7 Investigations of the Atmosphere and of Meteorological Features.- References.- 7 Applications of Gamma Radiation in Remote Sensing.- 7.1 The Natural Gamma-radiation Field.- 7.2 Gamma-ray Detector Systems.- 7.3 Operational Procedures.- 7.4 Applications.- 7.5 Future Prospects.- References.- 8 Sonar Methods.- 8.1 Introduction.- 8.2 Propagation of Acoustic Energy.- 8.3 The Sonar Equation.- 8.4 Factors Affecting Resolution in a Sonar System.- 8.5 Applications.- References.- 9. Digital Picture Processing.- 9.1 Introduction.- 9.2 The Elements of an Image Data Processing and Analysis System.- 9.3 Geometric Corrections.- 9.4 Image Enhancement and Filtering Processes.- 9.5 Feature Extraction and Classification.- 9.6 Appendix 1: The Image Signal in Spatial and Frequency Domain.- 9.7 Appendix 2: Numerical Example for Texture-context Features.- References.- Color Plates.