Course:

GISC 239

Remote Sensing

Credits:

3  Hours

Contacts:

2  Lecture (M,W 8:00-8:50 Swan 111),  3 Lab Hours (W 5:00 – 7:50 Swan 201) per week

Course Description:

This course explores the fundamental principles of remote sensing as they relate to engineering and environmental problems.  Topics covered include energy interactions, reflectance, scanning systems, satellite sensors, digital image process, and image classification.  Students will work with image processing software.

Course Prerequisites:

None

Course Outline:

The official course outline for this course can be located at the GISC 239 web site as well as on the FerrisConnect GISC 239 site.

Required Textbooks:

Introduction to Remote Sensing, 4^th edition, James Campbell, Guilford Press

Course Web Site:

Reference materials, mandatory supplemental reading, assignments, instructor messages and other information are provided through the GISC 239 web page and Ferris Connect site for this course.  Daily reference is mandatory.

Reference Textbooks:

1.       Manual of Remote Sensing, 3^rd edition, ASPRS (6 volume set)

2.       Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation, 6^th edition, T. Lillesand, R. Kiefer and J. Chipman, John Wiley

3.       Remote Sensing of the Environment – An Earth Resource Perspective, 2^nd edition, J. Jensen, Prentice Hall

4.       Introductory Digital Image Processing – A Remote Sensing Perspective, 3^rd edition, J. Jensen, Prentice Hall

Required Materials:

Some form of memory device such as a USB memory stick, external hard drive, etc.

Reference Materials:

Students should visit the GISC 239 web page to find material for this course.  The URL for the web site is: http://www.ferris.edu/faculty/burtchr/gisc239.html.  The site contains links to additional pages like the Syllabus (which contains links to the lecture notes), Assignments, Questions that have appeared on past exams, Links to other remote sensing web sites, Papers of Possible Interest in this class, Possible Term Paper Topics, and Pictures.  Additionally, some of this material will also be shown on FerrisConnect along with additional information if needed.

 

Other suggested or supplemental materials

None

Faculty:

Prof.  Robert Burtch

Office:

Johnson Hall 304

Phone:

(231) 591 – 2634

Alt. Phone:

Email:

burtchr@ferris.edu

   Alt. Email:

Office Hours:

Day

Times

Day

Times

Monday

9:00 – 9:50 AM

Tuesday

4:00 – 4:50 PM

Wednesday

9:00 – 9:50 AM

Thursday

2:00 – 2:50 PM

Student Learning Outcomes

Students satisfactorily completing this course will achieve/complete/demonstrate…:

1.       Know the basic principles of remote sensing and how it is utilized in mapping today.

2.       Be able to evaluate the design necessary for an effective remote sensing data collection strategy.

3.       Be able to analyze and enhance remote sensing images.

4.       Prepare written reports and papers and to orally present the findings in a group environment.

5.       Know the role and applicability of remotely sensed data in society such as the economic role, political role and engineering role.

Course Assessments

Course Policies

Attendance:

I understand that each student may upon occasion need to be away from class due to illness or other important matters.  The following policy recognizes these life issues but at the same time reflects the real world need to be present in class in order to learn and share your learning with others in the class.

Each student will be allowed to miss up to 4 classes, either lectures or lab, without penalty.  These absences may be for any reason and do not require giving me an excuse.  A student who is absent a fifth time will be required to withdraw from the course if this absence occurs during the withdrawal period of the semester.  If this absence occurs after the withdrawal period the student will receive a failing (F) grade in the course.  The four absences a student may have represents nearly 10% of the meeting dates and far exceed any absence policy that would exist in business, industry or other professional areas.  All laboratory absences must be made up during the semester.

Exceptions to the Attendance Policy (Verification of all exceptions is necessary):

1. A University-sponsored event in which an excused absence from the Vice President for Academic Affairs office is given.
2. Death of a family member or close personal relation (friends, neighbors).
3. Extended hospitalization (this does not apply to a visit to the health center because of a cold or other illness).
4. Jury duty or being subpoenaed to testify in a court case.
5. Dangerous weather conditions in which driving is considered by local authorities to be unsafe (for commuter students).   

Assignments:

Homework and lab assignments will be submitted to the FerrisConnect web page for this class.  Use the GISC 239 assignment template provided on the course web page.  Send the assignments as attachments.  Use the following naming convention: last_name – assignment number.  For example, for lab 1 the file will have the file name: burtch – lab 1.  Note that your last name is in lower case and that there are spaces around the hyphen and also before the number.

 

A cover sheet will be included with each assignment identifying the assignment, student name, and the class. 

Assignments will be typed, unless the work requires numerical solutions. It is assumed that you can put together a correctly structured assignment, free of technical and spelling errors.  Assignments with more than 4 combined spelling or grammar errors will be returned to be rewritten.  I will require any student that is found to have significant deficiencies in their writing to use the services of the University Writing Center in an effort to improve such deficiencies to a satisfactory level. 

When graphical output is required for an assignment, the output should be properly identified and located in the appropriate part of the assignment.  If the graphical output is being done by hand, it must be drawn using a straight-edge and appropriate templates.  Label all parts of the graphic as appropriate.

Work that is submitted in hand-written form must be prepared on engineering paper in pencil.  Corrections will be erased or placed above the incorrect values that will be stuck out with a single line through the error.  Use only the front side of the sheet.  Always include units in the answer and highlight the answer by either underlining it, placing a box around the answer, or by using a highlighter.  When you have answers that are less than 1, always begin the number with a zero.  For example, .471 shall be written as 0.471.  When writing angles, minutes and seconds must always have two units, excluding any decimal portion.  If a minute or second contains only single units, i.e., 4 minutes, 7 seconds, the number shall be proceeded by a zero.  In this case the angle shall be written as 04’ 07”.  Unless otherwise stated, all angles will be presented in degrees, minutes and seconds format.  Use common sense in portrayal of significant figures. 

Lab reports will consist of a least 3 main parts:

1. Purpose of the lab written in your own words.
2. Procedure. In this section succinctly identify the procedures employed in the lab and your results.
3. Conclusion. This section will consist of a discussion of the lab in general and upon your results in particular. Such items of importance might be the validity of the lab, limitations of the results, possible sources of errors that might affect the results, items you might have done differently, special problems encountered, etc.

For term paper requirements (the term paper is for extra credit) see the following web page: http://www.ferris.edu/faculty/burtchr/trm_papr.html. The topic for the paper must be approved by the instructor.  A topic will be submitted to the faculty member at the end of the second week.  The proposal will be a short paragraph explaining the topic being proposed and the approach taken to research the topic.  For a list of possible topics, see: http://www.ferris.edu/faculty/burtchr/gisc239/topics.html.

 

Behavior:

It is essential that everyone in this class establish a mutual respect amongst each other in this class.  Therefore, there are a few simple rules that you will be asked to adhere to; most of these can be defined as good manners.  These rules are:

• Class starts on the hour so please make every effort to arrive on time by planning ahead for any contingencies.
• Class lasts for 50 minutes so do not begin to pack up your books and other items early.  This is very distracting to me and your fellow students.  You are expected to participate throughout the entire class period.
• Turn off all cell phones, pagers, PDA’s, and other electronic devices before class.  If there are extenuating reasons, please see me.
• During the lecture, feel free to ask questions, but refrain from conducting personal conversations.  Again, this is very disruptive.
• Sleeping, eating and reading newspapers are not allowed in class.  While in class the student is expected to pay attention and participate in this class and not finish work for another class during this class periods.
• Come to class prepared.  Instructional material students should not be without include, as a minimum, writing material, computer disks and calculators.
• Students are expected to check the web page for this course weekly and students are responsible for all material on this web page along with textbook and other readings.
• When you leave the classroom, please pick up after yourself.  Try to leave the room cleaner than when you found it.

Exams and quizzes:

The exams will be primarily Multiple Choice and True/False tests.  This will constitute about 70-80% of the exam, depending on the topics covered in the exams.  The remaining parts of the exam will contain Short Answer questions as well as mathematical problems.

Students absent from class for a test must make arrangements to take the exam prior to the next class meeting.  Failing to do so will result in a grade of 0%.  It is the student's responsibility to call me to set up a time to make up the test.  Missing quizzes will not be made up outside of class.  This course may have a cumulative final exam. 

Final examination schedule guidelines from the Registration and Academic Guide:

In the event that three or more final examinations are scheduled on the same day during the examination week a student may elect to take only the first and last of those regularly scheduled on that day. Such election by the student to the affected instructor must be made no later than two weeks prior to the exam date. It will be the responsibility of the student to present authentication to the instructor of the course affected. The rescheduled exam will then be taken on another day during the examination week as arranged by the course instructor and the student.

 

Ferris Connect:

Ferris Connect site must referenced daily by students for access to instructor messages and course information. 

 

Grading Percentage:

Extra credit may also be earned in this class by writing a term paper on an approved topic that is not discussed in class or significantly expands a topic covered in the lecture.  Any paper not meeting the guidelines for term papers will not be accepted.  The paper must be turned in no later than December 4.  At most, the paper can contribute 10% of the final grade for this course.

The course grading scale is:

Integrity:

All of your assignments must be developed independently. Cheating of any type will result in loss of credit or more serious consequences.

 

Student Responsibilities:

When conducting field work, students must wear safety vests.  In all cases, be aware of traffic.  There is no reason why measurements need to be conducted in traffic.  Be aware of your surroundings at all times.

Assistance in this course is available to help you with academic and other difficulties you may be experiencing.  It is your responsibility to seek help.

1.       Office hours – I will be happy to work with you during regularly scheduled office hours.

2.       Pre-scheduled assistance outside of normal office hours (as my schedule permits).

3.       Meet with your Academic advisor.

4.       Meet with an educational counselor.  College Educational Counselor – Vordyn Nelson x 2890, JHN 200

5.       The ACADEMIC SUPPORT SERVICES CENTER offers free tutoring and assistance for test anxiety, study skills, writing skills, exam preparation, content reading, personal growth, and classroom skills.  The Center is located in Room 1017 of the Arts and Sciences Commons Buildings and they can be reached at 591-3543.

Course Schedule

Date

Lecture Topic

Preparation

Assignment

Week 1

Introduction: Understand course objectives, grading policy, etc. (PowerPoint slides in html format; in PDF format)

Lecture Notes Chapter 1

Lab 1

Week 2

Image interpretation: interpretation tasks, elements of interpretation, use of collateral information (PowerPoint slides in html format; in PDF format)

Lecture Notes

Chapter 5

Lab 2

Week 3

Electromagnetic radiation: electromagnetic spectrum, Planck's Law, scattering, rectification, absorption, atmospheric windows, reflection, transmission, spectral signatures

Lecture Notes

Chapter 2

Lab 3

Week 4

Electromagnetic radiation

Lecture Notes

Chapter 2

Lab 4

Week 5

Digital Data: pixels, scanners, IFOV, digital representation, data formats, image processing 

Lecture Notes

Chapter 4

Lab 5

Week 6

Mid-Term Exam #1, October 7

Lab 6

Land observation satellite systems: LANDSAT, SPOT, commercial ventures

Lecture Notes Chapter 6

Week 7

Land observation satellite systems

Lecture Notes Chapter 6

Lab 7

Week 8

Image resolution: target variables, measurement of resolution, mixed pixels, spatial & radiometric resolution

Lecture Notes

Chapter 9

Lab 8

Week 9

Preprocessing digital imaging: radiometric, destriping, image enhancement, resampling

Lecture Notes

Chapter 10

Lab 9

Week 10

Image classification: unsupervised & supervised classification, distance measure, training data

Lecture Notes

Chapter 11

Lab 10

Week 11

Accuracy assessment: error characteristics, error matrix

Lecture Notes Chapter 13

Lab 11

Week 12

Mid-Term Exam #2, November 18

Lab 12

Active microwave remote sensing: SLAR, radar geometry, look direction, look angle, synthetic aperture radar, interpretation of brightness values, radar systems

Lecture Notes

Chapter 7

Week 13

Thermal radiation:  detectors, thermal radiometry, thermal properties, thermal geometry

Lecture Notes

Chapter 9

Lab 13

Week 14

Bathymetry: sensors including side-scan sonar and multibeam sonar, mapping techniques, applications of bathymetric mapping

Lecture Notes

Lab 14

Week 15

Hyperspectral remote sensing: AVIRIS, spectral matching, spectral mixing analysis

Lecture Notes

Chapter 14

Lab Rap-up

Week 16

Final Exam – Wednesday, December 16, 8:00 – 9:40 PM