Abstract
Persistent cloud cover, especially within the tropics, offers limited clear views of the Earth’s surface from space. This presents a major impediment to the application of optical remote sensing discussed in Chap. 8 in providing global remote sensing coverage. Moreover, other than thermal sensors, most other optical imaging technologies best operate during day time when there is sufficient sunlight. The microwave region of the EM spectrum represents a principal atmospheric window that can be employed to overcome the above limitations in optical remote sensing. For instance, in view of their much longer wavelengths and contrary to optical sensors, microwaves can easily penetrate through vegetation canopies and even dry soils. In addition, microwave systems offer the user more choice and control over the properties of the incident microwave energy to be applied. Furthermore, they can be operated round the clock even under rainy or poor visibility conditions.
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
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Notes
- 1.
TRMM orbits at an altitude of \({\approx }403\) km with an inclination of \(50^{\circ }\) completing 16 revolutions every day. It is designed to monitor and study tropical rainfall in the latitude range \({\pm }50^{\circ }\) over inaccessible areas such as the oceans and un-sampled terrains. The primary instruments contained in TRMM include the microwave imager (TMI), the precipitation radar (PR) and the visible and infrared radiometer System (VIRS) (Kummerow et al. 1998).
- 2.
shuttle radar topographic mission (http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/).
- 3.
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Awange, J.L., Kyalo Kiema, J.B. (2013). Microwave Remote Sensing. In: Environmental Geoinformatics. Environmental Science and Engineering(). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34085-7_9
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