Cloud technologies as a tool of creating Earth Remote Sensing educational resources

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the Earth Remote Sensing (ERS), which the authors believe is a great way to teach geography and allows forming an idea of the actual geographic features and phenomena. One of the major problems that now constrains the active introduction of remote sensing data in the educational process is the low availability of training aerospace pictures, which meet didactic requirements. The article analyzes the main sources of ERS as a basis for educational resources formation with aerospace images: paper, various individual sources (personal stations receiving satellite information, drones, balloons, kites and balls) and Internet sources (mainstream sites, sites of scientific-technical organizations and distributors, interactive Internet geoservices, cloud platforms of geospatial analysis). The authors point out that their geospatial analysis platforms (Google Earth Engine, Land Viewer, EOS Platform, etc.), due to their unique features, are the basis for the creation of information thematic databases of ERS. The article presents an example of such a database, covering more than 800 aerospace images and dynamic models, which are combined according to such didactic principles as high information load and clarity.