Monitoring Marsh Dynamics Through Remote Sensing

The first synoptic images from space were provided by TIROS spacecraft with a video camera onboard in 1960 (Susskind et al. 1984), these images revealed a huge spheroid fully covered by oceans and clouds. There was still a long way to travel from simply picturing Earth to the current technological achievements of remote sensing science. However, the main scientific purposes of using remote sensing images have been maintained since those days. The very earliest uses of remote sensing are now much more focused and widespread, and often driven by military objectives. Indeed, remote sensing owes its rapid development almost exclusively to military initiatives (Barret and Curtis 1999). From a military perspective, targets should be differentiated as accurately as possible, and this requirement has resulted in the increased spatial resolution of remote sensors. Spectral resolution – the number of sensor bands imaging at different wavelengths – has been cultivated to help discriminate between false positives and true targets. Space technology has also played an essential role in improving the potential of remote sensing – mostly by enhancing satellite platform designs, accurate orbiting and the launch of more satellites. However, it was at the beginning of the 1970s when a new concept for remote sensing was introduced and that the new technology drifted towards a more applied discipline: Earth Observation Systems (EOS). While hundreds of satellites were launched for telecommunication, military uses or spatial prospecting, a few were also designed simply to monitor the Earth surface under the EOS concept. This new