Topic Overview: Overview

What is remote sensing? To find out, try playing the online activity "Far and Near, Near and Far." Or try one of the other great activities on remote sensing. You might have questions. Don't worry. We gathered some facts about remote sensing.

We use our sense of touch to gather facts. For example, we can touch a bench to find out if it is wet. We can touch our food to find out if it is hot. However, we cannot directly touch all things. We can still gather facts about them, though. We can use our sense of sight or hearing or smell to gather facts. This is called remote sensing.

Remote sensing is a tool used to gather facts from a distance. Many things are too big to study with our hands. Other places are just too far away. Remote sensing can be used to study these places. For example, meteorologists use remote sensing to study the weather all over Earth. Oceanographers use remote sensing to study the ocean floor.

There are many ways to remotely sense facts. One way to remotely sense facts is take pictures. Two other forms of remote sensing are SONAR and RADAR.