The Digital Imaging and Remote Sensing Laboratory is primarily concerned with the observation of Earth using aerial and satellite-based imaging systems. Our research has two major thrusts. The first involves design of instrumentation to image the earth and development of methods to extract quantitative information from remotely sensed data. The second involves development of methods to generate synthetic images of what the earth would look like to airborne or satellite imaging systems. These synthetic image generation tools include models of the thermal and radiometric behavior of the earth and the atmosphere which attempt to simulate all of the important factors that influence the signal level recorded by sensors operating in the visible through the thermal infrared portions of the spectrum.

Areas of Research: