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Satellite remote sensing literally has opened a new window on our understanding of the Earth and its climate, its natural resources, and the effects of humankind’s activities over the past 30 years. We are able to view pictures of the Earth’s surface, and we are in awe of the complexity and intricacy that exists within our cities and rural communities. We are still learning how to extract the vast amount of information that is available within an image scene and to apply this information to improving our understanding of the spatial and temporal changes caused by humans and natural events.
Agriculture has been one of the primary benefactors of the information content in remote sensing. In the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), utilization of our early source of remote sensing — aerial photography — goes back to the 1930s as documented in the introductory paper. Since the advent of satellite remote sensing, USDA scientists and practitioners have been actively developing analytical tools using remotely sensed data but there is still much we need to learn about how to refine and develop tools that include remote sensing inputs. One of the challenges we in agriculture have in the remote sensing arena is to determine how to use this information to the benefit of producers and ultimately the consumer through the application of science. In order to assess the progress, a group of USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists took on the task of summarizing the efforts in a number of areas over the recent past. These papers were assembled into this special volume of Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing. The papers cover a wide range of topics in which ARS scientists have had a role in helping to develop the current technology and its application to agriculture and natural resources.
Papers were assembled with the goal of helping the remote sensing community evaluate progress to date and begin to formulate strategies for further advances in the development of new tools. Application of remotely sensed data into agricultural decisions is not a new concept; over the past 30 years there have been several demonstrated accomplishments that incorporate remotely sensed data into field- and regional-scale assessments. These papers summarize the current state of knowledge in using remote sensing data for assessing soil properties and changes induced by management, water quality assessment in rivers and lakes, land-use evaluation, and the incorporation of remote sensing inputs into hydrometeorology assessments. The uses of remote sensing in crop and range management are areas in which there is growing interest in terms of providing better information about the spatial changes in plant response to management and the feedback of this information into improved management systems. Calibration of sensors to provide reliable and accurate data for agricultural applications is a large component of the research program in the ARS, and more attention is being directed toward better sensors and increased spatial resolution. The papers in this Special Issue demonstrate that, although we have gathered a large amount of information, the task of assembling information for decision making is far from complete.
Agriculture is potentially a large user of remotely sensed data and will have an active research community that continues to develop and refine tools to improve production efficiency, protect the environment, and increase the safety of our food supply. Our desired outcome in assembling these papers is to help promote discussion about the future direction of research in remote sensing applied to agricultural problems.
Co-editors
J.L. Hatfield is with the USDA, ARS, National Soil Tilth Research Laboratory,
2150 Pammel Drive, Ames/Ankeny, IA 50011-3120. hatfield@nstl.gov
G.F. Hart retired from USDA, ARS.
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