Subject: Satellite Imagery FAQ - Contents (1/5)
Supersedes: <sci/Satellite-Imagery-FAQ/part1_824542314@rtfm.mit.edu>
Date: 19 Mar 1996 03:58:10 GMT
Summary: Satellite Imagery for Earth Observation - Contents/General
X-Last-Updated: 1996/02/14


The Satellite Imagery FAQ - contents

Last Mofified: February 14th 1996: No major changes. 

   Added "Sounding Instruments" answer posted to IMAGRS-L by
   Wayne Boncyk 
   Added Finnish RS society and Satellite Inage Centre links 
   Added "USA from Space" link to AVHRR datasets 
   Added new SPOT Image and SDCSC links 
   Updated WWW links for GeoTIFF and for Oliver Weatherbee's
   software reviews pages 
   Updated addresses for Ted Smith's Jobs list, and added SDCSC
   to jobs links. 

Thanks to Arto Vuorela (arto.vuorela@nls.fi) for the information behind
many of this month's updates. 

Your attention is drawn to the Notice and Disclaimer below. If you
haven't already done so, please read them, particularly if you are
going to use or reproduce any of the information in this document!

(the Notice hasn't changed, it's just been moved to a friendlier place)! 

This FAQ is the work of several authors, without whose valuable
contributions, suggestions and encouragement it would not have been
possible. 


------------------------------

Subject: Introduction




Introduction

This FAQ deals with imagery of Earth from Space. It aims to combine
some very brief introductory material with a guide to the numerous
resources available on (and off) the Internet. It is the work of members
of the IMAGRS-L (Image Processing & Remote Sensing) LISTSERV.
We hope it will be of value to those whose work, studies or casual
interest involve Remote Sensing of the Earth. 

I have also included a couple of Remote Sensing answers. The
philosophy here is simple: if it's somewhat relevant, and someone's
posted (and I've seen) a good piece, then it may get included.

This is an Internet document, and is generally updated monthly. If you
have an out-of-date version (e.g. printout, CDROM), you can get a
more up-to-date version from the addresses below.

Call for Contributions: There are gaps in this FAQ. In addition, much
of the material comprises my very brief and sketchy entries to cover
what would otherwise be gaping holes! If you can fill any (or all :-) of
them, please help!

If you are on the WWW, you should use the InterFAQ at 
http://clever.net/webthing/RS to submit material. Otherwise please mail
me. Material I can just cut-and-paste in is most likely to be useful/used.

nick@mail.esrin.esa.it 

This FAQ has five parts, loosely classified as:

 1. Contents & other meta-information (this document). 
 2. General Questions 
 3. Technical Questions 
 4. List of RS satellites & instruments, with pointers to information on
   the Net. Note that this does not appear in the Table of Contents,
   but is used as html links from elsewhere in the FAQ. 
 5. Further Reading (long!) 

For newsgroup comp.infosystems.gis, they are merged into a single file,
to ensure the GIS-L gateway rejects it and doesn't flood readers
mailboxes (someone please tell me if this fails!!!) 



------------------------------

Subject: Table of Contents


Contents


------------------------------

Subject: General Questions (2/5)


   Imagery 
    1. What are basic classes of imagery, and their sources? 
         Geostationary Weather Satellites (Meteosat,
         GOES) 
         Earth Observation Imagery 
            Colour 
            Resolution 
            Types of Imagery 
            3-dimensional Imagery 
         Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) 
            What is SAR 
            What are the main SAR platforms? 
            What distinguishes SAR from hi-res optical
            imagery? 
            What are SAR images good for? 
            What is the meaning of colour in a SAR
            image? 
         Others (silly classification - someone suggest a
         better one)! 
            Radar Altimetry
            (avoiding listing them until I/someone has
            something to say)! 
         - What about the military? ("If I knew I couldn't
         say; if they told me I wouldn't believe them" :-) 
            Didn't President Clinton declassify some
            intelligence imagery?
    2. Russian Imagery
         What about Russian Satellite Imagery? 
         What are the characteristics of the KOSMOS
         satellite systems? 
         What are the characteristics of the RESURS
         satellite system? 
         What are the characteristics of the Okean? 
         What about all of the problems concerning Russian
         sources? 
         Can the film sources be provided in digital form? 
         How can I purchase Russian Imagery? 
         Are the Russian planning any future commercial
         satellite systems? 
    3. What are the main Earth Observation Satellites and
      Sensors
    4. Where can I get such-and-such imagery? 
    5. What datasets are available on CDROM 
    6. How do I access the imagery catalogues? 
         CEOS IDN 
         Cintex & clients 
    7. Whole-World Images 
         Why create whole-world images? 
         How do they create whole-world images? 
         Why AVHRR? Why not, say, Landsat? 
         How do they get rid of the cloud? 
         Further reading 
    8. odds'n'sods 
         But isn't the Great Wall of China the only manmade
         feature visible from space? Hmmm... Doesn't this
         originate with moon landings, and the naked eye? 
         Why do the weather forecasters always get it
         wrong?
         What can I say? See an intro to chaos (I don't
         suppose the fractals FAQ would be any use as a
         reference here?) 
   General Questions 
    1. What are the main National and International Remote
      Sensing programmes around the world? 
    2. Where can I read about Government policies in Remote
      Sensing 
    3. Where can I find information on RS and the Environment? 
    4. Can satellite imagery be used to watch newsworthy
      events? 
    5. Jobs and Services 
         Where can I advertise or look for a job in remote
         sensing? 
         Where can I advertise or look for remote sensing
         and related Services? 
    6. Software (& hardware!) 
         Where can I find descriptions or reviews of
         software packages? (other than the marketing
         hype)! 
         Is there a list of Software Vendors? 
         Where can I find information on Software
         Packages? 
         What software is available in the Public Domain? 
         Something about minimum hardware requirements
         (storage, processing power..) 
         What kit do I need to receive satellite imagery on
         my PC? 
    7. What are the Earth Observation Standards body? 
         Committe on Earth Observing Sensors (CEOS)
    8. Social & legal issues
         How does copyright affect satellite images? 


------------------------------

Subject: Technical Questions (3/5)


   Technical 
    1. Image Basics 
         What is a digital image? 
         What is spatial resolution? 
         What is temporal resolution? 
         What is spectral resolution? 
    2. Image Data (previously called "Image Formats") 
    3. What are the different levels of imagery I can
      buy/download? 
    4. Is there a non-proprietary image format for
      geographic/RS data? 
    5. Do I need geocoded imagery? 
    6. Instruments 
         Imaging Instruments 
         What is a Sounding Instrument? 
    7. Basic Processing (TBD) 
    8. Orbits: (TBD) 
         What are the orbits of EO satellites? 
         what is the advantage of a polar orbit? What can
         you see from a geostationary orbit (Meteosat)?
         Other orbits? 
         Is there a list the various satellite's orbits? 
         How do I convert Landsat Path/Row to Lat/Long? 
    9. Data 
         How is satellite data received on the ground? 
    10. Geo-referencing (someone?) 
    11. I am using my images for some classification problem. 
         I need to classify a mosaic of several images. How
         best to do it? 
         How can I assess my results? 
         Is there a program to compute Kappa coefficients??
         How good can I expect my results to be in practice?


------------------------------

Subject: Further Information (5/5)


   Further Information, tables 
      Can you point me to a good online introduction to Remote
      Sensing? 
      I have a question that isn't covered in the FAQ. Where
      should I look? 
      Related Documents and FAQs 
      Relevant Discussions on the Internet (News, Listserv,
      WWW) 
      WWW URL's 
      Catalogue Services 
      Terminology and Acronyms 
      Ground Stations/CEOS IDs 
      List of Addresses of some Data Suppliers. 
      List of what data they supply. 
   Applications
   Outside the scope of this document, for the time being at least.
   However,
    1. Phillip Ingrams "Using the Web for Geosciences" FAQ is
      recommended as a starting point for exploration on the
      Net. 
    2. The USGS keeps a map of Earth and Environmental
      Science resources on the net at 
      http://info.er.usgs.gov/network/science/earth/index.html.
    3. See also the WWW Virtual Library 


------------------------------

Subject: Contributors


Contributors

Contributed substantial material specifically for the FAQ: 

   Wim Bakker (bakker@itc.nl) 
   Peter Bolton (pbolton@clyde.pc.my) 
   Nick Kew (nick@mail.esrin.esa.it) 
   W. Steven Sklaris (ssklaris@tds.com) 

Substantial articles by other authors have also been included. These are
credited in situ (I'll improve this list when the document is more
complete).

As a rule, I'm trying to credit all FAQ entries. The possible exceptions
are lists, which naturally tend to merge all known sources.

The FAQ continues to benefit from a variety of readers comments and
suggestions, but much remains to be done! Thanks to all who have
offered feedback!

A final word of thanks to Grant Denkinson
(Grant.Denkinson@nottingham.ac.uk) who in hosting the FAQ on his
WWW server has found and corrected numerous small errors! 


------------------------------

Subject: NOTICE and DISCLAIMER


NOTICE:

Copyright 1995 Nick Kew and co-authors

You are free to copy or distribute this document and its subdocuments in
whole or in part, provided: 

   You DON'T do so for profit. 
   You DO include this notice in full. 

You may also include this document IN ITS ENTIRETY ONLY with a
commercial product, provided you make it absolutely clear that you are
NOT charging for the information contained herein.

Disclaimer: This is the work of individuals, not speaking for nor
endorsed by their organisations.

It is offered in good faith and in the hope that it may be of use, but is not
guaranteed to be correct, up to date or suitable for any particular
purpose. The authors accept no liability in respect of this information or
its use.

WHERE TO GET A CURRENT COPY 

 1. The Remote Sensing InterFAQ at http://clever.net/webthing/RS 
 2. At WWW servers including:
      http://www.geog.nott.ac.uk/remote/satfaq.html 
      http://web20.mindlink.net/geo_exchange/satfaq.html 
      http://www.uni-sb.de/philfak/fb6/fr66/tpw/rem_sens/satfaq.html
      http://clever.net/webthing/people/nick/satfaq.html 
 3. Posted monthly to newsgroups including sci.answers and
   news.answers 
 4. By anonymous FTP from the rtfm archive (rtfm.mit.edu), and
   mirrors. 
 5. If all else fails, email nick@mail.esrin.esa.it for details. 

END OF NOTICE 
