ABSTRACT
Remote sensing analysts, a specialized category of geospatial professionals, produce stunning visualizations of environmental and human processes such as climate change, natural resource exploitation, and sprawling urbanization using a vast and growing catalog of digital satellite imagery. Remote sensing can be thought of as a linear process that begins with an electromagnetic radiation source, commonly designated as passive or active. The chapter discusses some of the major remote sensing projects, principally from the United States, that have shaped the terrain of civilian remote sensing. Digital image processing and a steady stream of new sensors and airborne platforms have resulted in powerful automated and reliable methods of big data visualization, analysis, and knowledge creation. The Image Analysis window packages some of the more commonly used tools from the Toolbox in a similar but thematic User interface—it can be found in the Windows menu in ArcGIS.
