Remote Sensing Concepts and Landsat Imagery

This lesson, created by Jeannie Allen and offered by the Integrated Geospatial Education and Technology Training Project (iGETT), introduces students to concepts in remote sensing and the creation of Landsat imagery. A 57-slide PowerPoint presentation covers topics related to Landsat imagery, including the electromagnetic spectrum, spectral signatures, what makes Landsat different from other satellites orbiting Earth and how they go about collecting information, and how all this adds up to create imagery (with a focus on band combinations). A three-minute animated movie, viewable in an internet browser, demonstrates these concepts. 

This is a basic-level lesson and does not assume prior student knowledge of ArcGIS software. The lesson does require that students have an understanding of basic scientific concepts and previous contextual knowledge of the electromagnetic spectrum and Landsat data would be beneficial. The lesson should take one class period.