ABSTRACT
John Estes, a geographer closely associated with remote sensing since its earliest days helped to pioneer in many areas of practical application, not the least the sensing of large oil spills. In a sense the possibilities opened up by remote sensing seem to be more limited by our imaginations rather than technical problems. This has been a constant theme of David Simonett, one of the geographic pioneers of remote sensing. From balloons to satellites, all forms of sensing have had one thing in common, whether human eyes, photographic films, or magnetic tapes were the initial receptors. All sensed radiation of one sort or another, either reflected from the earth or even transmitted as a remarkable satellite photo of Europe taken at night shows. For the geographer, the age of not-so-remote sensing has long arrived and today the basic skills of transforming numbers on magnetic tape to multicoloured images disclosing the wonders of our home taught in most departments of geography.
