Images of the Earth

Introduction. Chapter 1 The Problems. 1.1: Water. 1.2: Food. 1.3: Natural disasters. 1.4: Physical communications. 1.5: Physical resources. 1.6: Natural environments. 1.7: Security. Chapter 2 Getting the Information. 2.1: Human perception. 2.2: Radiation and matter. 2.2.1: Reflection and absorption. 2.2.2: Thermal emission. 2.2.3: Artificial radiation. 2.3: Detecting radiation. 2.3.1: Photographs. 2.3.2: Electromechanical methods. 2.3.3: Passive Microwave imaging. 2.3.4: Active microwave or radar imaging. 2.4: Sources of remotely sensed data. 2.4.1: A short history of remote sensing. 2.4.2: Airborne data. 2.4.3: Data from satellites. 2.5: Displaying information. 2.5.1: Other kinds of data. Chapter 3 Interpreting the Information. 3.1: The Weather and Climate. 3.2: The Sea. 3.3: The Land. 3.4: Natural vegetation. 3.5: Use of the Land. 3.6: Beneath the Surface. Chapter 4 Using the Information. 4.1: Water resources. 4.2: Food and fibre. 4.3: Physical resources. 4.4: Communications. 4.5: Disasters. 4.6: Environmental change. 4.7: Military uses. Chapter 6 Operational Issues. 5.1: Benefits. 5.2: Costs. 5.3: Training. 5.4: Data distribution. 5.5: Future prospects. Appendix. A.1 Training opportunities. A.2 Sources of images. Further reading. Glossary. Index