Abstract. Content based image retrieval is an active research area of pattern recognition. A new method of extracting global texture energy descriptors is proposed and it is combined with features describing the color aspect of texture, suitable for image retrieval. The same features are also used for image classification, by its semantic content. An exemplar fuzzy system for aerial image retrieval and classification is proposed. The fuzzy system calculates the degree that a class, such as sea, clouds, desert, forests and plantations, participates in the input image. Target applications include remote sensing, computer vision, forestry, fishery, agricultures, oceanography and weather forecasting.