Course Outline: Msc in Freshwater and Coastal Sciences

CORE GEOGG141 – Principles and practice of Remote Sensing (15 credits)

Term 1 (2016-17)

Staff: Dr. Mat Disney (convenor) (MD), UCL Geography. Room 113 Pearson Building, tel. 7679 0592 (x30592) [email protected]

Course web page http://www2.geog.ucl.ac.uk/~mdisney/teaching/GEOGG141/GEOGG141.html Including PDF of lecture notes and journal article links.

Aims:  To provide knowledge and understanding of the basic concepts, principles and applications of remote sensing, particularly the geometric and radiometric principles;  To provide examples of applications of principles to a variety of topics in remote sensing, particularly related to data collection, radiation, resolution, sampling, mission choices.  To introduce the principles of the radiative transfer problem in heterogeneous media, as an example application of fundamental principles.  To provide some background to remote sensing organizations and policy through seminars.

Content: The module will provide an introduction to the basic concepts and principles of remote sensing. It will include 3 components: i) radiometric principles underlying remote sensing: electromagnetic radiation; basic laws of electromagnetic radiation; absorption, reflection and emission; atmospheric effects; radiation interactions with the surface, radiative transfer; ii) assumptions and trade-offs for particular applications: orbital mechanics and choices; spatial, spectral, temporal, angular and radiometric resolution; data pre-processing; scanners; iii) time-resolved remote sensing including: RADAR principles; the RADAR equation; RADAR resolution; phase information and SAR interferometry; LIDAR remote sensing, the LIDAR equation and applications.

 Introduction to remote sensing  Radiation principles, EM spectrum, blackbody  EM spectrum terms, definitions and concepts  Radiative transfer principles and assumptions  Spatial, spectral resolution and sampling  Pre-processing chain, ground segment, radiometric resolution, scanners  LIDAR remote sensing  RADAR remote sensing: principles  Revision (MD)

Assessment: 70% 2 hour unseen examination, which takes place at the start of Term 2 30% Assessed poster presentation, during Format: The course is based upon lectures, with occasional seminars provided by outside speakers from industry, government etc.

Learning Outcomes: At the end of the course students should:  Have knowledge and understanding of the basic concepts, principles and applications of remote sensing.  Be able to derive solutions to given quantitative problems particularly related to geometric principles, EM radiation, LIDAR and RADAR systems  Have an understanding of the trade-offs in sensor design, orbit, resolution etc. required for a range of applications  Have an understanding of the propagation of radiation transfer in vegetation, and be able to explain the problem, and propose mathematical solutions

Class schedule: This module runs in Term 1. PM sessions in red. Not all PM sessions are used. Week Date Day/Time Len Class Room 6 03/10 Tue 11:00 2 Introduction, Radiation Principles: I PB G07 6 03/10 Tue 14:00 2 Radiation Principles: II PB G07 7 10/10 Tue 11:00 2 NO LECTURES PB G07 8 17/10 Tue 11:00 2 Spatial, spectral sampling PB G07 8 17/10 Tue 14:00 2 Angular, temporal, radiometric sampling PB G07 9 24/10 Tue 11:00 2 NO LECTURES PB G07 10 31/10 Tue 11:00 2 Pre-processing, ground segment PB G07 10 31/10 Tue 14:00 2 Poster seminar discussion PB G07 11 07/11 Reading Week 12 14/11 Tue 11:00 2 Active RS I: LIDAR intro PB G07 12 14/11 Tue 11:00 2 Active RS II: LIDAR applications PB G07 13 21/11 Tue 11:00 2 NO LECTURES PB G07 14 28/11 Tue 11:00 2 Active RS III: RADAR intro PB G07 14 28/11 Tue 11:00 2 Radiative transfer: I PB G07 15 05/12 Tue 11:00 2 Active RS IV: RADAR interferometry PB G07 15 05/12 Tue 14:00 2 Radiative transfer: II PB G07 16 12/12 Tue 11:00 2 Revision & problem class PB G07 16 12/12 Tue 14:00 2 Poster presentations PB G07

Contact time = ~30 hours

Key contacts: MD = Mat Disney ([email protected]) PL = Philip Lewis ([email protected]) JGD = Jose Gomez-Dans ([email protected] )

Assessment Exam The examination will be a combination of essay-type and problem-solving questions. Candidates will answer three questions on this part of the course from a choice of five in 2 hours. The PPRS MSc module (CEGE046) has run with different module codes in the past, so the past papers are: CEGE046 (2008-2010); GEOMG017 (2007-8), GEOGRSC1 (2005-6), GEOGGR01 (2007 referred/deferred paper). Past exam papers are kept in the library (http://exam-papers.ucl.ac.uk/SocHist/Geog/). Module contant has changed over time, and the past papers reflect this.

Poster presentations These will take place on the last Tuesday session, and will involve students preparing a scientific poster based on a remote sensing application of their choice. They will need to present the poster and its content during the session and answer questions on the content. Guidance on the format and content will be provided during the course.

You will need to prepare a scientific poster based on a remote sensing application of your choice. You will present the poster and its content during the session and answer questions on the content. Links are provided below for suggested templates for you to use for your poster presentation. These are formed of 4 x A3 sheets, which you should arrange in an A1 portrait format i.e. 2 rows of 2, all in portrait. The first 2 slides should obviously go at the top. I've given you these templates so you can print out on the UCL print@ucl service quickly and easily. You're quite welcome to use your own style eg a single A1 sheet, BUT: i) it should also be portrait; and ii) you will have to print in your own time and at your own expense.

Regarding style and good practice, there are lots of resources online but here's some guidelines for starters. Remember, less text, more, clear figures. Oh yes, and less text.

 http://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/AnnMtg_BES-Poster- Design-Guidelines.pdf  https://www.liv.ac.uk/media/livacuk/computingservices/printing/making-an-impact-with-your- poster.pdf  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1876493/  http://www.northwestern.edu/climb/pdfs-powerpoints/resources-oral/RCW1-Posters.pdf

Poster templates can be found here.

Your posters will be marked according to the following criteria:  SCIENCE AND RESEARCH CONTENT (rationale, analysis, coherence)  POSTER DESIGN AND ORGANISATION (clarity, quality and effectiveness of figures and design)  ORAL PRESENTATION (response to questions, conduct, fluency)

IMPORTANT: You MUST submit a pdf copy of your poster via moodle (DEADLINE: noon, Fri 15/12/17 i.e. the last day of term). You must ALSO submit a text only copy to TurnItIn (link). This should just be a word document with the text from your poster, including references, but no tables or figures. This is the file that will be assessed for plagiarism and therefore the text MUST match that in the poster pdf. Failure to do either of these will result in an incomplete submission, and so may be liable to a mark penalty.

Aims and guidelines: recent remote sensing applications What is a scientific poster for? A poster is something we use to communicate our work rapidly and concisely, typically at scientific meeting, conferences and workshops. A poster can be a very effective way of communicating your science, making new research connections, find out how your work comes across to other people in the field, as well as how it comes across to people outside the field e.g. if you are presenting for a general audience, the public, schools, work etc. A key aim of course is to engage with the people who are viewing your poster - remember, if they come to read, you can always tell them about what you do in more detail. If they never stop to read in the first place then you can't. You can also use posters to try things out, preliminary results, present new data, before you may have had time to analyse in detail or write up for peer-reviewed publication. Also, you can keep a poster - if it looks good you can use it on the wall in an office or lab to show people what you do. But, a bad poster can also be a way to fill people with dread! The screeds of tiny text with poor or no figures, and tons of equations and wonky boxes.

Course material All teaching notes are available from the course webpage and moodle.

Books Remote Sensing principles Campbell, J. B. (2007) Introduction to Remote Sensing (2nd Ed), London, Taylor and Francis, 4th edn. (a good general textbook covering theory with a little bit on image interpretation). Jensen, John R. (2006) Remote Sensing of the Environment: an Earth Resources Perspective, Hall and Prentice, New Jersey, 2nd ed. (an excellent, slightly more advanced textbook covering theory and applications but not image processing. A solid investment). Jones, H. and Vaughan, R. (2010, paperback) Remote Sensing of Vegetation: Principles, Techniques, and Applications, OUP, Oxford. (A graduate-level textbook covering theory and applications related to vegetation – more specialized but a very good primer in the field). Liang, S. (2004) Quantitative Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces, Wiley-Blackwell (an excellent, advanced textbook covering radiation transfer, theory and algorithms. Expensive, so try the library). Lillesand, T., Kiefer, R. and Chipman, J. (2004) Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation. John Wiley and Sons, NY, 5th ed.. (Good general textbook with image processing as well). Monteith, J. L and Unsworth, M. H. (1990) Principles of Environmental Physics, Edward Arnold: Routledge, Chapman and Hall, NY, 2nd ed. (an excellent book covering basic physics – lots of useful parts here on radiation, surface energy budgets, modelling etc. – a real gem). Purkis, S. J. and Klemas, V. V. (2011) Remote Sensing and Global Environmental Change, Wiley- Blackwell (a good account of various remote sensing applications, strong on ocean and coral reefs).

A longer list of journal articles is provided on the course web page