Development history and prospect of remote sensing science and remote sensing geology

(a) Several stages in the development of remote sensing science

Remote sensing science developed from aerial photogrammetry, and grew up through the decryption and conversion of some high-tech military reconnaissance technologies to civilian use. The development history of remote sensing science is usually divided into: the early stage before World War II, actually the aerial photography stage; 1937- 1960 is marked by the development of imaging technology from aerial photography to television, scanning and radar, and the application of image data of military reconnaissance and civil photogrammetry to various civil industries; In the third stage, that is, after the 1960s, the following points can be used to illustrate that remote sensing technology has got rid of the single aerial photography imaging and developed into remote sensing science. Its signs are as follows: ① The emergence of civil space technology, especially the successful launch of ERTS, marks the beginning of the civil space remote sensing stage, which makes the timing, positioning observation and comparative interpretation of remote sensing technically possible, economically cost-effective, and expands human observation of the earth from high altitude to outer space; The application of new remote sensor technology expands the electromagnetic spectrum from visible light photography to infrared and microwave bands, extending people's senses and expanding information sources; (3) The development and use of large-scale electronic computers have laid a foundation for remote sensing image processing technology, enabling a large number of data obtained by remote sensing to be processed in time and provided to users, and making civil remote sensing technology practical and commercialized.

(B) the development prospects of remote sensing geology

As an integral part of remote sensing, remote sensing geology will make continuous progress with the development of remote sensing technology. Its development prospects are mainly manifested in the following four aspects:

1. Development of new remote sensing bands and remote sensors. The former is the development and utilization of millimeter wave band, lidar and ultraviolet band. The latter is mainly devoted to the development of high-resolution narrow-band remote sensors in visible light, especially in infrared band. Of course, there are also various platforms (such as space shuttle and geological satellite) as carriers of remote sensors, as well as real-time transmission of remote sensing data.

2. Fast, cheap and effective methods to process, extract and analyze geographic information, such as geographic information system, expert system and develop new image enhancement processing scheme.

3. The deepening of remote sensing technology in the geological field and the development of new fields. The deepening of existing application fields: firstly, the application of remote sensing technology in mineral resources exploration is developing towards modeling, automation and quantification; Secondly, it is applied to regional structural analysis and remote sensing geological mapping. In the development of new application fields of remote sensing technology in geosciences, remote sensing analysis of deep structures, including disaster geology and urban geology (in a broad sense), is the main content.

4. Study on remote sensing geoscience mechanism. For example, the transmission of remote sensing geoscience information and the formation mechanism of some huge ring structures are all problems to be further studied.

As a new branch of geology, remote sensing geology is not very mature in theory, technology and application, and people have different understandings and evaluations of it. Even the translation of its concepts and related terms needs to be unified, but its technical advantages and role in geology are irreplaceable by other geosciences. In the coming 2 1 century, remote sensing technology and remote sensing geology will surely play a greater role in China's geoscience work, show their technological advantages and make more contributions.