EOS756-001 Spring 2010 Physical Principles of Remote Sensing

EOS756-001 Spring 2010
Physical Principles of Remote Sensing
Course Information
Title: EOS756-001 Physical Principles of Remote Sensing
CRN: 11965
Time: Mondays 7:20 - 10:00 PM
Location: Enterprise Hall 277
Instructor: Dr. John Qu
Telephone: (703) 993-3958
Office: Room 328, Research Building I
Office Hour: Stop by Tuesday or make appointment
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) and NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP)
missions. These students will understand not only what remote sensing systems do, but how they work.
Schedule
Week one (01/26)
Introduction to Earth science satellite remote sensing
Physical fundamentals of remote sensing
Week two (02/02)
An Introduction and Overview of MODIS
Top atmospheric solar radiation
Week three (02/09)
Introduction to the VIIRS Sensor
Week four (02/16)
Atmospheric absorption and scattering
Radiation transfer in the atmosphere
Week five (02/23)
Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document for Brightness Temperature
Week six (03/02)
Applications radiation transfer principles to remote sensing I and Middle term
Week seven (03/09)
Spring break, no class
Week eight (03/16)
Applications radiation transfer principles to remote sensing II
Week nine (03/23)
Platform for remote sensing and Eelectro-optical systems
Satellite orbit and geo-location simulation
Week ten (03/30)
Week eleven (04/06)
Space Mission Design: Mission geometry
L1-B (SDR) algorithms and calibrations
Atmospheric corrections
Week twelve (04/13)
Orbit simulation tool: Trakstar
Atmospheric Correction and Vegetation Indices
Week thirteen (04/20)
Fundamentals of Bi-directional Reflectance and BRDF Modeling
Week fourteen (04/27) In situ measurements in support of remote sensing
Final project
EOS, NPOESS and NPP related topics and focusing on physical principles.
Grading
•
•
Midterm 30%
Homework 20%
•
Final Project 50%
(A=90-100, B=80-89, C=70-79, D=60-69, F=<60)
Prerequisite
Permission of the instructor
Textbooks
1. Kuo-Nan Liou, 2002, An Introduction to Atmospheric Radiation, Second Edition, Academic Press, ISBN
0-12-451451-0
Reference Books
2. Rees, W. G. 2001, Physical Principles of Remote Sensing, second edition, Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 0-521-66034-3 (hardback) and ISBN 0-521-66948-0 (paperback).
3. Charles Elachi, 1987, Introduction to the Physics of Remote Sensing Wiley Series in Remote Sensing,
John Wiley & Sons Inc., ISBN-0-471-84810-7.
4. 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).
5. Some EOS, NPOESS, and NPP Algorithm Theoretical Basis Documents (ATBDs) will be used during
this class.
Useful Links
6. NASA Earth Observing System
7. Seleced EOS instrument ATBDs
8. NASA Visible Earth
9. NASA MODIS
10. NASA/GSFC Direct readout
11. NASA Remote Sensing Tutorial
12. NPP Web Page
13. NPOESS Web Page
14. NASA AERONET (AErosol RObotic NETwork) program
15. MODIS Rapid Response System
16. ESGS Colloquium -EOS900 (2009, Spring)