Advances in Quantitative Earth Remote Sensing: Past, Present and Future

Abstract

A combination of multispectral visible, infra-red and microwave sensors on the constellation of international Earth-observing satellites are providing unprecedented observations for all Earth domains over multiple decades (i.e., atmosphere, land, oceans and polar regions). This Special Issue of Sensors is dedicated to papers that describe such advances in the field of Earth remote sensing and their applications to advance understanding of Earth’s planetary system and applying the resulting knowledge and information to meet the societal needs during recent decades. The papers accepted and published in this issue convey the exciting scientific and technical challenges and opportunities for remote sensing of all domains of Earth system, including terrestrial, aquatic and coastal ecosystems; bathymetry of coasts and islands; oceans and lakes; measurement of soil moisture and land surface temperature that affects both water resources and food production; and advances in use of sun-induced fluorescence (SIF) in measuring and monitoring the contribution of terrestrial vegetation in the cycling of carbon in Earth’s system. Measurements of SIF, for example, has had a profound impact on the field of terrestrial ecosystems research and modelling. The Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) instrument on the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCVR) satellite located at the Sun–Earth Lagrange Point One, about 1.5 million miles away from Earth, is providing unique observations of the Earth’s full sun-lit disk from pole-to-pole and minute-by-minute, which overcomes a major limitation in temporal coverage of Earth by other polar-orbiting Earth-observing satellites. Active and passive microwave remote sensing instruments allow all-weather measurements and monitoring of clouds, weather phenomena, land-surface temperature and soil moisture by overcoming the presence of clouds that affect measurements by visible and infrared sensors. The use of powerful in-space lasers is allowing scientists and engineers to measure and monitor rapidly changing ice sheets in polar regions and mountain glaciers. These sensors and their measurements that are deployed on major space-based observatories and small- and micro-satellites, and the scientific knowledge they provide, are enhancing our understanding of planet Earth and development of Earth system models that are used increasingly to project future conditions due to Earth’s rapidly changing environmental conditions. Such knowledge and information are benefiting people, businesses and governments worldwide.

Reconstruction of Gap-Free Land Surface Temperature at a 100 m Spatial Resolution from Multidimensional Data: A Case in Wuhan, China

“…The development of remote sensing technologies has greatly facilitated the acquisition of LST data [ 6 ]. The currently available satellite images from which LST can be retrieved include the images of the Landsat series, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor data, and Sentinel satellites.…”

A Transmission Efficiency Evaluation Method of Adaptive Coding Modulation for Ka-Band Data-Transmission of LEO EO Satellites

“…For LEO EO satellites, the orbit characteristics lead to limited time for satellite-to-ground data transmission [ 1 ]. Technological advancements in satellite engineering have made it feasible to develop EO satellite systems with high spatial, spectral, temporal and radiometric resolutions [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. With the development of multifunction and high-resolution payloads, there is an obvious boost of the on-board storage and downlink transmission data volume.…”

Semantic Segmentation of Natural Materials on a Point Cloud Using Spatial and Multispectral Features

“…The precise observation of three-dimensional (3D) natural spaces is a research line in which many recent works have proposed novel solutions with a high impact in the science of materials and remote sensing [1]. The emergence of a wide variety of sensors makes it possible to develop detailed studies about the recognition of meaningful features of every entity in nature.…”