Aerial and satellite imagery and big data: Blending old technologies with new trends

Abstract

Over the past decades, the successful employment of aerial and satellite imagery and remote sensing (RS) data has been very diverse and important in many scientific fields. Firstly, a brief review of RS history is presented in section one. Then, basic properties, which are also challenges, of RS big data are concisely discussed. Volume, variety and velocity are mainly described as characteristics of RS big data while variety, value and visualization are primarily denoted as new challenges. The third section is concentrated on justifying the relevance of RS big data in today's society and the needs to integrate it with other kind of data sources to develop useful services. In this sense, a special section is dedicated to Copernicus initiative and some case studies of specific applications are also shown. Finally, some general conclusions are presented paying attention to the spatial nature of RS big data, which gives it a special added value in the new digital era.