REMOTE SENSING and
AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Roger Wheate
NREM100 Fall 2010
Early aerial photography
(before planes):
balloons, pigeons and
mountain tops
Oblique photos from mountain peaks: Banff
Oblique photography
Post-1945: Panchromatic aerial photograph: Iqualuit
Aerial Photography
• Aerial photography = two sciences:
– Photogrammetry (=precise locations and heights)
– Air photo interpretation (=feature identification)
• Advantages over ground surveying
– Cost and time-convenience
– Historical record
Air Photo Interpretation
• Tone / colour
• Texture
• Shape
• Pattern
• Size
• Shadows
• Context
Colour photography
– 2x as expensive
BC aerial photography 2007
Digital aerial photography
www.terrasaurus.ca
Orthophotos as digital map layers:
1993, 2003, 2006
BC ‘imap’:
Applications
• All natural resources disciplines
– Navigation and mapping
– Forest inventory
– Geologic surveys
– Natural hazards
– Land use change
– Wildlife habitat assessment
Photos – 1:15,000 = 4km x 4 km; 1:40,000 = 10km x 10km
Satellite images: 60 x 60 km ; 185 x 185km; 500 x 500 km
Merge of satellite image and orthophoto
2003
2007
High resolution corporate satellites: Geoeye (50cm res.)
Cypress Bowl – Feb 19, 2010
Google Earth (since 2005): aerial photography and satellite images
The giant dog you can see from space
Monday, June 9, 2008 BORIS the bull mastiff is so big that he can be seen lounging in his favourite
position in the garden - from space. The 89kg dog has been captured on Google Earth's satellite images.
His owners noticed an enormous brown blob on the image of their front garden and were stunned to
discover it was their pet. 'He was in his favourite place,' said Fran Milner, from Bournemouth.
We knew he was big but didn't think he was big enough to be seen from space.'
Google Earth: aerial photography and satellite images / mashups