Introduction to Microwave Remote Sensing / Edition 1

by Iain H. Woodhouse

Overview

Introduction to Microwave Remote Sensing offers an extensive overview of this versatile and extremely precise technology for technically oriented undergraduates and graduate students.

This textbook emphasizes an important shift in conceptualization and directs it toward students with prior knowledge of optical remote sensing: the author dispels any linkage between microwave and optical remote sensing. Instead, he constructs the concept of microwave remote sensing by comparing it to the process of audio perception, explaining the workings of the ear as a metaphor for microwave instrumentation.

This volume takes an "application-driven" approach. Instead of describing the technology and then its uses, this textbook justifies the need for measurement then explains how microwave technology addresses this need.

Following a brief summary of the field and a history of the use of microwaves, the book explores the physical properties of microwaves and the polarimetric properties of electromagnetic waves. It examines the interaction of microwaves with matter, analyzes passive atmospheric and passive surface measurements, and describes the operation of altimeters and scatterometers. The textbook concludes by explaining how high resolution images are created using radars, and how techniques of interferometry can be applied to both passive and active sensors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415271233
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/02/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	813,749
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Why microwaves? A brief history of microwaves. Physical fundamentals. Polarimetry. Microwaves in the real world. Detecting microwaves. Atmospheric sounding. Passive imaging. Active microwaves. Imaging radar. Interferometry.

Editorial Reviews

This book can serve as a textbook for graduate students on the properties of microwaves and how they can be used to study the Earth, and also as a good reference for remote sensing scientists and engineers who would like a convenient summary of relevant electromagnetic gathered in a single volume. … This book fills an important niche between classical electromagnetic textbooks and detailed application manuals, giving an appreciation of how microwave remote sensing relates discipline science to the fundamentals of radio wave propagation. … The book stands out as a worthy general text that is ideally suited for introductory coursework o tot serve as an advanced reference. This book should find its way onto many desks and bookshelves belonging to remote sensing professionals and future remote sensing professionals.”
—In PE&RS, Vol. 73, No. 7, July 2007

From the Publisher