CAREER IN REMOTE SENSING FIELD

Speaker: Dr. Laili

Remote Sensing is one of the most in favor technology that demanded today. As it can be applied for various fields, many prefer the uses of remote sensing rather than other technology. Some of the applications include town planning, agriculture, engineering, environment and more. For the past years, remote sensing had bee collaborating with GIS for a better data manipulation and representation.

To be in the remote sensing industry, one should know almost everything about the technology from the basic principle to its data capturing methods and processing to its application. One should know the basic concept of remote sensing which the measurement of earth surface is without being in contact directly with the surface. The data capturing method is varies. The latest one is UAV which is the remote-controller plane that flied over the area to be measured. The cost of this plane is nearly RM100000. There are other methods such as satellite imagery, LIDAR, RADAR, LANDSAT, SPOT, IKONOS and etc. The only differences of all this images are its resolution. Some of them are having a very bad resolution which is nearly impossible to be used for a detailed mapping. Some is good for many applications such as soil fertility monitoring, temperature and humidity monitoring and more. Nowadays, the use of satellite imagery is no longer relevant as the resolution is really bad plus the presence of cloud and haze. So, the other technology is preferred such as UAV. Even the cost to buy it is high, the profit gained for projects using it is worth. For data processing, one must know well the methodology to be used. The raw image basically can’t be used directly for analysis. It must be registered first or in other words geocoded. This is to make sure the coordinates and projection of the image is in a good condition. Once the image geocoded, then only it can be manipulated for other application. For manipulating the data, one should no the characteristics of the data and what it capable to do. Some satellite image use surface temperature for data capturing, so it is very good to be used for temperature monitoring. Some image used light reflectivity which can be used for vegetation and water quality monitoring. These are all depending on how well we know about the data to manipulate them for various applications.

In Malaysia, there are three agencies responsible for this field which is ANGKASA, MACRES and ARMA. These agencies play different role in providing remote sensing data that can be used for various applications mentioned earlier. The satellite receiving station in Malaysia located in Mentakab, Pahang.

This remote sensing and GIS field is really suitable for Geomatics students that have a high interest in this field. Also, for whoever already doing the thesis paper regarding this field, they should continue on working in this environment.