Remote Sensing
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Aerial Photography began around 1858 when photographer Gaspard Tournachon obtained the first aerial photographs from a balloon just outside Paris.
Since then, aerial photography has advanced to include first color infrared film, and later digital cameras.
Since the 1960s, 'remote sensing' has been a term used to define a new field of information collection that includes aircraft and satellite platforms carrying sophisticated sensor systems.
Remote sensing can be defined as the science and art of obtaining information about an object, area or phenomenon through the analysis of data acquired by a device that does not come into contact with the object, area or phenomenon under investigation.
Remote sensors collect data by collecting the energy that is reflected and/or emitted from Earth in the electromagnetic spectrum.
Click the image to the right to watch a brief video about the importance of remote sensing produced by the Earth Science & Observation center at the University of Colorado at Boulder.