Welcome to your guide to understanding remote sensing and its applications to underwater science. Now is your opportunity to explore the underwater worlds of remote sensing.

Remote sensing is the science and art of obtaining information about an object, area, or phenomenon through the analysis by a device that is not in contact with the object, area, or phenomenon under investigation, (Lillesand, 1994). An important aspect of remote sensing is its ability to capture transient events with camera and film. It holds a variety of applications related to the atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, data collection systems, oceanography. This page focuses on the latter.

Common applications include surface temperature, geoid, bottom topology, winds, waves, and currents, circulation, mapping of sea ice, and oil pollution monitoring.

For an additional overview of remote sensing, visit NASA’s Observation Education page now.

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Adapted from Lillesand and Kiefer, Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation, 3rd ed., Wiley, New York, 1994, pp. 1.