GGS756-001 Fall 2014
Physical Principles of Remote Sensing

Course Description

This course is designed to give students with limited Earth science satellite remote sensing background a thorough introduction to gather the basic concepts and fundamentals of physical principles of remote sensing. The main emphasis of this course is on the basic physical and mathematical principles underlying the satellite remote sensing techniques, including radiometric and geometric information, satellite orbit and geo-location simulation, science algorithm designing, atmosphere corrections, and in situ measurements in support of remote sensing. In addition, this class will provide a focus on the NASA current and future Earth Observing System (EOS) instruments, such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), future National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS, now JPSS) and NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP, now Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership) missions. These students will understand not only what remote sensing systems do, but how they work.

Final project
EOS, JPSS or NPP related topics and focusing on physical principles of satellite remote sensing.

Grading

Prerequisite
Permission of the instructor

1. Kuo-Nan Liou, 2002, An Introduction to Atmospheric Radiation, Second Edition, Academic Press, ISBN 0-12-451451-0
2. Charles Elachi, 1987, Introduction to the Physics of Remote Sensing Wiley Series in Remote Sensing, John Wiley & Sons Inc., ISBN-0-471-84810-7.
3. Wiley J. Larson and James R. Wertz, 1997, Space Mission Analysis and Design, Space Technology Series. Kluwer Academic Publishers, ISBN 1-881883-01-9 (paperback), ISBN 0-7923-1998-2 (hardback).
4. John J. Qu, Wei Gao, Menas Kafatos, Robert E. Murphy, Vincent V. Salomonson, 2006, Earth Science Satellite Remote Sensing Vol. 1: Science and Instruments http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-540-37293-6
5. John J. Qu, Wei Gao, Menas Kafatos, Robert E. Murphy, Vincent V. Salomonson, 2006, Earth Science Satellite Remote Sensing Vol. 2 Data, Computational Processing, and Tools. http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-540-37294-3
6. Some EOS, JPSS, and NPP Algorithm Theoretical Basis Documents (ATBDs) will be used during this class.

1. NASA Earth Observing System
2. Seleced EOS instrument ATBDs
3. NASA Visible Earth
4. NASA/GSFC MODIS Direct readout
5. NASA Remote Sensing Tutorial
6. NPP Web Page
7. JPSS Web Page
8. NASA AERONET (AErosol RObotic NETwork) program
9. MODIS Rapid Response System