Remote Sensing: Past and Present

Abstract

The use of remote sensing perhaps goes all the way back to prehistoric times when the early man stood on a platform in front of his cave and glanced at the surrounding landscape (late Robert N. Colwell, UC Berkeley). These humans were remotely sensing the features in the landscape to determine the best places to gather food and water and how to avoid becoming a food for the other inhabitants of the landscape. The term “photography” is derived from two Greek words meaning “light” (phos) and “writing” (graphein) (late John E. Estes, UC Santa Barbara). All cameras and sensors utilize the same concept of light entering a camera or a sensor and being recorded on a film or on a digital media.