Remote sensing and Earth observation systems

This chapter Introduces basic remote sensing: what it is and how it is utilized in biodiversity monitoring. Depending on whether the sensor system is passive, catching photons travelling from the sun, hitting the surface of the Earth, and reflected back up to be collected in the sensor of the satellite or whether the system is sending light actively, to catch the rebound, the foundation is the electromagnetic spectrum. The chapter takes up common types of data capture and processing of images or point clouds, exemplified in several different disciplines and areas of biodiversity. The recent explosion of available satellite data free of charge, together with data portals providing data, server storage, libraries of scripts, and computer capacity for processing of the data, has revolutionized the monitoring field.