An accessible yet rigorous introduction to remote sensing and its application to the study of vegetation for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. The underlying physical and mathematical principles of the techniques disucussed are explained in a way readily understood by those without a strong mathematical background.

Hamlyn G Jones has been Professor of Plant Ecology at the University of Dundee since 1997, where his current research concentrates on aspects of micrometeorology and plant interactions with their environment (especially their responses and adaptations to environmental stresses). A major part of this work involves the development of remote sensing approaches to the study of energy and mass exchange by plant canopies, and the remote study of canopy structure.
He has published a major text on 'Plants and microclimate', together with four jointly edited proceedings and over 110 articles in refereed journals.
Robin Vaughan moved to the University of Dundee in 1965 as a solid state physicist and in 1991 was appointed senior lecturer in the Electronic Engineering and Physics Division. In 1995 he was elected a Fellow of the Remote sensing Society. He has written numerous books and articles and is now course director of the Dundee MSc course on Remote Sensing, Image Processing and Applications.

• Preface


• List of symbols and abbreviations


• 1: Introduction


• 2: Basics of radiation physics for remote sensing of vegetation


• 3: Radiative properties of vegetation, soils and water


• 4: Plant and canopy function


• 5: Earth observation systems


• 6: Preparation and manipulation of optical data


• 7: Use of spectral information for sensing vegetation properties and for image classification


• 8: Multiangular sensing of vegetation structure and modelling of radiation-transfer properties


• 9: Remote sensing of canopy mass and heat exchanges


• 10: Sampling, error and scaling


• 11: Integrated applications


• References


• Appendices


• Answers to sample problems


• Index