By Derek Geise
Introduction
Remote sensing can be a very valuable and fun tool to demonstrate historically changing landscapes as well as demonstrating where to farm, live, play, and to monitor land use practices. Arial photography provides a very different way to see our surroundings. False image aerial photography is a very widely used tool to remote sensing scientists. The Conservation and Survey Division at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has an outstanding resource of false image aerial photographs of various towns and cities across Nebraska available for sale at a very minimal cost.
Purpose
The activity will use aerial photography false imagery to get high school students aquatinted with remote sensing.
Materials
A false image remote sensing poster of your town or a town that is near you or well known by you and your students. Copies of these can be obtained from the Conservation and Survey Division at a minimal cost.
Procedure
This is a relatively simple activity. It is intended to get you and your students aquatinted with remote sensing.
- Get students into groups of four.
- Distribute maps of your town or a nearby town.
- Have students look over maps and try to pick out landmarks that they know.
- Have students find the following items:
- the school you are in
- any parks
- golf coarse
- rivers or streams that are near by
- center pivots
- fields that are currently not planted
- bodies of water in the area
- major streets or highways
- airport
- students approximate home area
- major businesses
NOTE: all vegetative green areas will appear red on these false color images. Two color patterns dominate the land classes: reds, depicting vegetation, and medium grayish-browns, found mainly along the bright sun-facing slopes. Water is shown in deep blues that, in shallow areas become a bit lighter where thicker sediments add reflectance. Areas believed to be barren of vegetation to varying degrees have darker gray-brown tones but may have faint pink overtones implying limited vegetation cover.