Geography

What is a GIS?

• GIS stands for Geographic Information System

• A tool people can use to map and analyze geographic data

• Organizes data by where it occurs

Why is Geography Important?

• Our activities and decisions involve location in some way

• Examples: – Where to buy bread on the way home from work– Where to build new roads or hospitals

What is Remote Sensing?

• Geographers use pictures taken from satellites and sensors to help solve everyday problems.– Examples include aerial

imagery, infrared (IR) and microwave sensors, and sonar

What agencies might use remote sensing?

• Weather forecasters• Foresters• Agriculture• Ocean researchers• Biologists• Polar researchers

Provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE

How can we use remote sensing?Some of the ways (but not all!)

we can use remote sensing:• Weather• Land use• Populations of organisms in

the ocean• Monitoring sea ice

An example

• One way that remote sensing can be used is in tracking land use changes through time.

• Remote sensing can also be used to detect vegetation and land types and even natural disasters.

• When using an infrared (IR) sensor, vegetation appears bright red and is easy to spot.

• IR sensors also allow tornado tracks to be easily seen.

LANDSAT ETM+ IR composite image of

Delaware Inland Bays

Photo from NASA Science News; ASTER sensor