Sunday, 3 January 2016

Applications of Remote Sensing In Electrical Engineering

Remote Sensing

Remote sensing is a way of acquiring information about the surface of the earth without actually being in contact with it.
Remote sensing is done by receiving and recording energy that is either emitted or reflected by the surface of the earth, so there must be a source of electromagnetic energy, a target, and a sensor. The source can be the sun or a satellite, depending on the type of energy being monitored.
Passive remote sensing depends on natural energy such as sunlight that is reflected off the surface of the earth or heat that is emitted from the surface of the earth. Active remote sensing uses energy emitted by satellites and reflected back to the satellites from the surface of the earth.

Why has Remote Sensing being developed?


Remote sensing has a very long history dating back to the end of the 19th century when cameras were first made airborne using balloons and kites. The advent of aircraft further enhanced the opportunities to take photographs from the air. It was realized that the airborne perspective gave a completely different view to that which was available from the ground.

Process of Remote Sensing


The process involves an interaction between incident radiation and the targets of interest.
(A) Energy Source or Illumination
(B) Radiation and the Atmosphere
(C) Interaction with the Target
(D) Recording of Energy by the Sensor
(E) Transmission, Reception, and
Processing
(F) Interpretation and Analysis
(G) Application

Introduction to Electrical Engineering

Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. This field first became an identifiable occupation in the latter half of the 19th century after commercialization of the electric telegraph, the telephone, and electric power distribution and use. Subsequently, broadcasting and recording media made electronics part of daily life.

Applications of Remote Sensing in Electrical Engineering

Measuring wind speed and direction for wind farms, weather forecasting and surfers

Golfers, farmers, pilots, engineers and wind turbine planners need accurate wind information. Weather balloons and GPS are a good way to do this. But it’s not the only way. NASA’s QuickSCAT scatterometer and wind LiDAR are making these large-scale wind observations too. And these tools are working on the principle of remote sensing.

Plantation of solar panels

If we have to choose a single location anywhere on Earth to install a solar panel, it would have to be the Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) map. GHI measures the rate of total incoming solar energy at the Earth’s surface in watts per square kilometer. Decades of satellite data (derived from GOES and Meteosat) has generated this data with a standard error of only 5%. This remote sensing data brings some serious heat and measurments which are helpful for deciding the location for solar plant installation.

Plantation of Telecom Towers

It’s estimated that 87% of the world population now use mobile devices. The astounding rate of growth in this industry requires extensive planning for optimal network capacity. Telecommunications companies are using remote sensing as a cost-effective way to optimize capacity requirements. Radio frequency coverage can be augmented with the appropriate antenna type, location and direction. Satellite-derived terrain, land use and other environmental factors can be modeled to achieve optimal network capacity.

Windmills And hydel power plants

Windmills and hydel power plants are essential for the production of electricity and they can be very useful if they are installed at the right place. We can get maximum advantage of remote sensing by inquiring the land and that would be very useful because once installed at the right place we can get full benefit of these power plants.

En-routing of airplanes

In today’s world routing of airplanes is done by remote sensing. Advanced tools have been developed which are being used in the airplanes. And with the help of which we can get our point by point location. We can set our desired routes and can easily manage the air traffic.

Plantation of Power lines

Trees can damage and break power lines and underground cables. Broken power lines and cables are dangerous and costly to repair. Like tress there are many other obstacles which can harm the transmission lines. So, by remote sensing we can first survey the area properly and then we can avoid these types of hazards and can safely plant power lines. And we can also sort out shortest and safest routes using this technique or the tools working on the principle of remote sensing.

Controlling Traffic Signals

Our increasing population and urbanization has led to increasing amount of traffic in urban areas. Traffic jams mean waste of fuel and time. Ground measuring systems provide extremely precise traffic volumes but it’s limited to selected roads. Traffic density is being monitored using change detection. Traffic analyst can compare two satellite images with slight lags. This shows traffic movement over a large picture.   



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