7. USING CURRENT AND FUTURE REMOTE SENSING SYSTEMS
IN NATURAL HAZARDS MANAGEMENT
59
4.
EXPLOITING FORTHCOMING SENSORS IN
NATURAL HAZARD MANAGEMENT
A new generation of space-borne sensors is under development and
should become operational within the next few years. These advanced
instruments will provide data at much higher spatial and spectral resolution,
and offer enhanced features such as multi-angular observations, on-board
calibration facilities, improved navigational capabilities, etc. Although
generally not designed to address natural hazards information requirements
in particular, these systems should generate data streams which should prove
useful in this context.
Technological advances are occurring along multiple directions. A series
of polar-orbiting platforms will progressively replace the NOAA/AVHRR
systems. It includes the already flying VEGETATION instrument on board
the French SPOT satellite, as well as major Earth Observation platforms
such as the EOS AM/1 (recently named Terra) of NASA launched in
December 1999 with the MISR, MODIS and ASTER sensors. The European
Space Agency (ESA) will similarly launch (in mid 2001) the ENVISAT
platform, embarking MERIS and AATSR, while the Japanese Space Agency
(NASDA) is planning to start operating the ADEOS-II platform with the
GLI instrument, early in this decade.
Advanced geostationary satellites are also being designed and built. For
instance, the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) family of platforms should
provide remote sensing data of interest for weather forecasting, as well as
climate and atmospheric studies over the next decade or more.
Last but not least, there are a number of public and private projects to
launch and operate hyper-spectral and very high spatial resolution
instruments in support of specific applications. These include, for instance,
imaging spectrometers such as Earlybird (3 m), Quickbird (3.28 m),
Orbview (1 and 2 m) and, most recently, Ikonos (1 m). New approaches are
also being pursued where the environment is frequently revisited thanks to a
constellation of small satellites. The FUEGO program is one such example,
which consists of multiple satellites whose radiometric and orbital
characteristics are being selected to allow the near real time detection of fires
in the Mediterranean region.
Clearly, taking full advantage of these new technological capabilities will
require the development, implementation and evaluation of dedicated tools
and techniques of data analysis. For simple applications, where even
approximate information is required in a very short amount of time, spectralbased methods, such as spectral indices, will continue to play an important
role. On the other hand, information with a much better accuracy and
IN NATURAL HAZARDS MANAGEMENT
59
4.
EXPLOITING FORTHCOMING SENSORS IN
NATURAL HAZARD MANAGEMENT
A new generation of space-borne sensors is under development and
should become operational within the next few years. These advanced
instruments will provide data at much higher spatial and spectral resolution,
and offer enhanced features such as multi-angular observations, on-board
calibration facilities, improved navigational capabilities, etc. Although
generally not designed to address natural hazards information requirements
in particular, these systems should generate data streams which should prove
useful in this context.
Technological advances are occurring along multiple directions. A series
of polar-orbiting platforms will progressively replace the NOAA/AVHRR
systems. It includes the already flying VEGETATION instrument on board
the French SPOT satellite, as well as major Earth Observation platforms
such as the EOS AM/1 (recently named Terra) of NASA launched in
December 1999 with the MISR, MODIS and ASTER sensors. The European
Space Agency (ESA) will similarly launch (in mid 2001) the ENVISAT
platform, embarking MERIS and AATSR, while the Japanese Space Agency
(NASDA) is planning to start operating the ADEOS-II platform with the
GLI instrument, early in this decade.
Advanced geostationary satellites are also being designed and built. For
instance, the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) family of platforms should
provide remote sensing data of interest for weather forecasting, as well as
climate and atmospheric studies over the next decade or more.
Last but not least, there are a number of public and private projects to
launch and operate hyper-spectral and very high spatial resolution
instruments in support of specific applications. These include, for instance,
imaging spectrometers such as Earlybird (3 m), Quickbird (3.28 m),
Orbview (1 and 2 m) and, most recently, Ikonos (1 m). New approaches are
also being pursued where the environment is frequently revisited thanks to a
constellation of small satellites. The FUEGO program is one such example,
which consists of multiple satellites whose radiometric and orbital
characteristics are being selected to allow the near real time detection of fires
in the Mediterranean region.
Clearly, taking full advantage of these new technological capabilities will
require the development, implementation and evaluation of dedicated tools
and techniques of data analysis. For simple applications, where even
approximate information is required in a very short amount of time, spectralbased methods, such as spectral indices, will continue to play an important
role. On the other hand, information with a much better accuracy and