Remote Sensing

Required Readings, Winter 2022

Note - while most readings are online, some will be on the data drive in the GIS lab. Pay attention!

Readings 1: Due Friday, 14 January

• Developing the map of the future. EIJ. April 2015.
• Aerial Imaging Primer: Moving beyond the base map. EIJ. September, 2014
• History through the Keyhole (readings subdirectory)

Readings 2: Due Friday, 21 January

• Satellite Images help pierce the fog of war. 17 March, 2015. AAAS News.
• Exploring the capabilities of spaceborne sensors. EIJ. April 2015

Readings 3: Due Friday, 28 January

• Homer, C.G., Dewitz, J.A., Yang, L., Jin, S., Danielson, P., Xian, G., Coulston, J., Herold, N.D., Wickham, J.D., and Megown, K., 2015, Completion of the 2011 National Land Cover Database for the conterminous United States-Representing a decade of land cover change information. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, v. 81, no. 5, p. 345-354 (note, this article is in pdf format on the data drive!)
• Mapping minerals with light. EIJ. September, 2014

Readings 4: Due Friday, 4 February

• Mongolian Lakes (in the reading subdirectory on the GIS lab server)
• An eye in the sky could detect planet-warming plumes on the ground. NY Times. 2018.
• Moving forward with uas mapping. EIJ. May/June 2015. Also read the section on uas company profiles.

Readings 5: Due Friday, 11 February

• Drones could detect disaster damage. San Diego Union Tribune, 2015.
• Lost treasures of the Maya snake kings. National Geographic video. Watch the vid and do a writeup much like you would for an article.
• New age for oil and gas exploration. EIJ. July/August, 2015

Readings 6: Due Friday, 18 February

• Big data help scientists dig deeper. EIJ. May/June 2015
• TIR and mineshafts. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology. (readings subdirectory)
• Cool article about Yellowstone

Readings 7: Due Friday, 25 February

• Monitoring polar changes: scientists deploy many tools to measure sea ice thickness. EIJ. December 2014
• Huge crater discovered in Greenland from impact that rocked Northern Hemisphere. Phys.org. 2018.
• Shedding light in the dark: radar satellites lead the way. ESA. 2019.

Readings 8: Due Friday, 4 March

• See the Light: LiDAR data help expose landslide hazards. EIJ. Sept/Oct 2015
• forest heights - First-of-its-Kind Map Depicts Global Forest Heights - NASA website, 2010.
• Topographic Lidar data employed to map, preserve US History. EIJ. October 2016

Writeup format

For EACH article, do the following:

• Outline the article (in outline format, about 1/2 a page). Examples of outline format can be found at
• http://examples.yourdictionary.com/apa-outline-format-examples.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_(summary)
• http://www.albany.edu/eas/170/outline.htm
• Next, I want about a half page (1-2 paragraphs) in which you discuss the article.  Tell us what you thought and why (it’s the why that’s important).  Some things to consider include
• Are there errors in the science?  If so, what are they?
• Is the paper biased?  How so?
• Can you relate to the article somehow?  If so, how?
• Does the article relate to class?  Something else in the news?  How?

When grading these, I ask the question 'did the student read, understand, and think about the article?' I do NOT want a summary of the article.

Each reading set is worth 1 percent of your final grade each and are graded as follows:

• 1 point – outline is present, about a half page, in outline format, and hits major points of the article.  Discussion is about half a page and demonstrates the author read and thought about the article.
• .75 points.  As above, only either the outline or discussion doesn’t meet the above standards.
• .5 point.  As above, neither fully meets the above, but both are present.
• 0 points.  Anything less.  Note, scientifically inaccurate information will result in a lowering of the grade.

Note: to be accepted, the writeups MUST be submitted as word documents using Canvas by the due date (every friday by midnight)

Also note: information pulled from the readings will be on the midterm and final exams.

A sample writeup can be found here