A remote sensing application is a software application that processes remote sensing

Remote sensing

Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon, without making physical contact with the object. In modern usage, the term generally refers to the use of aerial sensor technologies to detect and classify objects on Earth by means of propagated signals Remote sensing...

 data. Remote sensing applications are similar to graphics software

Graphics software

In computer graphics, graphics software or image editing software is a program or collection of programs that enable a person to manipulate visual images on a computer....

, but they enable generating geographic information from satellite and airborne sensor

Sensor

A sensor is a device that measures a physical quantity and converts it into a signal which can be read by an observer or by an instrument. For example, a mercury-in-glass thermometer converts the measured temperature into expansion and contraction of a liquid which can be read on a calibrated...

 data. Remote sensing applications read specialized file formats that contain sensor image data, georeferencing information, and sensor metadata

Metadata

The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...

. Some of the more popular remote sensing file formats include: GeoTIFF

GeoTIFF

GeoTIFF is a public domain metadata standard which allows georeferencing information to be embedded within a TIFF file. The potential additional information includes map projection, coordinate systems, ellipsoids, datums, and everything else necessary to establish the exact spatial reference for...

, NITF

National Imagery Transmission Format

The National Imagery Transmission Format Standard is a U.S. Department of Defense and Federal Intelligence Community suite of standards for the exchange, storage, and transmission of digital-imagery products and image-related products.DoD policy is that other image formats can be used internally...

, JPEG 2000

JPEG 2000

JPEG 2000 is an image compression standard and coding system. It was created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group committee in 2000 with the intention of superseding their original discrete cosine transform-based JPEG standard with a newly designed, wavelet-based method...

, ECW (file format)

ECW (file format)

ECW is a proprietary wavelet compression image format optimized for aerial and satellite imagery. It was developed by Earth Resource Mapping, and is now owned by ERDAS, which is owned by Intergraph...

, MrSID

MrSID

-External links:* from LizardTech's website...

, HDF

Hierarchical Data Format

Hierarchical Data Format is the name of a set of file formats and libraries designed to store and organize large amounts of numerical data...

, and NetCDF

NetCDF

NetCDF is a set of software libraries and self-describing, machine-independent data formats that support the creation, access, and sharing of array-oriented scientific data. The project homepage is hosted by the Unidata program at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research...

.

Remote Sensing applications perform many features including:

• Change Detection — Determine the changes from images taken at different times of the same area
• Orthorectification — Warp an image to its location on the earth.
• Spectral Analysis — For example, using non-visible parts of the electromagnetic spectrum
  Electromagnetic spectrum
  The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of all possible frequencies of electromagnetic radiation. The "electromagnetic spectrum" of an object is the characteristic distribution of electromagnetic radiation emitted or absorbed by that particular object....
  
   to determine if a forest is healthy
• Image Classification — Categorization of pixels based on reflectance into different land cover classes (e.g. Supervised classification, Unsupervised classification and Object Oriented Classification)

Many remote sensing applications are built using common remote sensing toolkits, like GDAL

GDAL

GDAL is a library for reading and writing raster geospatial data formats, and is released under the permissive X/MIT style free software license by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. As a library, it presents a single abstract data model to the calling application for all supported formats...

 and OSSIM.

Examples of remote sensing applications

• Geomatica
  PCI Geomatica
  PCI Geomatica is a remote sensing desktop software package for processing earth observation data, designed by PCI Geomatics Inc. The latest version of the software is Geomatica 10.3, released in 2010. Geomatica is aimed primarily at raster data processing and allows users to load satellite and...
  
  , PCI Geomatics
• Chips
• ERDAS IMAGINE
  ERDAS IMAGINE
  ERDAS IMAGINE is a remote sensing application with raster graphics editor capabilities designed by ERDAS for geospatial applications. The latest version is 2010, version 10.1. ERDAS IMAGINE is aimed primarily at geospatial raster data processing and allows the user to prepare, display and enhance...
  
  
• ENVI
• Google Earth
  Google Earth
  Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographical information program that was originally called EarthViewer 3D, and was created by Keyhole, Inc, a Central Intelligence Agency funded company acquired by Google in 2004 . It maps the Earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite...
  
  
• GRASS GIS
  GRASS GIS
  GRASS GIS is a free, open source geographical information system capable of handling raster, topological vector, image processing, and graphic data....
  
  
• OpenEV
  OpenEV
  OpenEV is an open source geospatial toolkit and a frontend to that toolkit. OpenEV was developed using Python and uses the GDAL library to display georeferenced images and elevation data...
  
  
• Opticks
  Opticks (software)
  Opticks is an open source, remote sensing application that supports imagery, video , Synthetic Aperture Radar , multi-spectral, hyper-spectral, and other types of remote sensing data. Opticks is unlike other remote sensing applications because it treats imagery and video alike...
  
  
• Orfeo toolbox
  Orfeo toolbox
  Orfeo Toolbox is a library for remote sensing image processing. The project had been initiated by the French space agency in 2006 and is under heavy developments and the participation from the open source community is currently growing. The goal is to provide potential users of satellite images...
  
  
• RemoteView
  RemoteView
  RemoteView, is the family name of a group of software programs designed to aid in remote sensing using satellite or aerial images of the Earth's surface. It is published by Overwatch Geospatial Systems , a subsidiary of Textron Inc...
  
  
• SeaDAS — NASA
  NASA
  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
  
  's free application for Ocean Color imagery, including SeaWiFS
  SeaWiFS
  SeaWiFS stands for Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor. It was the only scientific instrument on GeoEye's OrbView-2 satellite, and was a follow-on experiment to the Coastal Zone Color Scanner on Nimbus 7...
  
   and MODIS
  MODIS
  The Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer is a payload scientific instrument launched into Earth orbit by NASA in 1999 on board the Terra Satellite, and in 2002 on board the Aqua satellite...
  
   imagery
• SOCET GXP
• SOCET SET
  SOCET SET
  SOCET SET is a software application that performs functions related to photogrammetry. It is developed and published by BAE Systems. SOCET SET was the first commercial digital photogrammetry software program...
  
  
• NEST ESA's SAR Toolbox

See also

• Remote Sensing
  Remote sensing
  Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon, without making physical contact with the object. In modern usage, the term generally refers to the use of aerial sensor technologies to detect and classify objects on Earth by means of propagated signals Remote sensing...
  
  
• Aerial photography
  Aerial photography
  Aerial photography is the taking of photographs of the ground from an elevated position. The term usually refers to images in which the camera is not supported by a ground-based structure. Cameras may be hand held or mounted, and photographs may be taken by a photographer, triggered remotely or...
  
  
• Geographic information system
  Geographic Information System
  A geographic information system, geographical information science, or geospatial information studies is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographically referenced data...
  
   (GIS)
• Radar
  Radar
  Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
  
  
• Hyperspectral
• Imagery Analysis
  Imagery analysis
  Imagery analysis is the extraction of useful information from bi-dimensional graphic formats, including screen shots. This includes color and black-and-white photographs, infra-red photographs and video, radar screens and synthetic aperture radar formats, ultrasound, EKG, EEG, MRI, echo...
  
  
• Multi-spectral image
  Multi-spectral image
  A multispectral image is one that captures image data at specific frequencies across the electromagnetic spectrum. The wavelengths may be separated by filters or by the use of instruments that are sensitive to particular wavelengths, including light from frequencies beyond the visible light range,...