front cover of Angle-of-Arrival Estimation Using Radar Interferometry
Angle-of-Arrival Estimation Using Radar Interferometry
Methods and applications
Jeff Holder
The Institution of Engineering and Technology, 2014
Radar interferometers provide a cost-effective radar architecture to achieve enhanced angle accuracy for enhanced target tracking. The objective of this book is to quantify interferometer angle estimation accuracy by developing a general understanding of various radar interferometer architectures and presenting a comprehensive understanding of the effects of radar-based measurement errors on angle-of-arrival estimation. As such this book is primarily directed toward tracking radars but will also discuss imaging applications as well.
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front cover of Archaeological Remote Sensing in North America
Archaeological Remote Sensing in North America
Innovative Techniques for Anthropological Applications
Edited by Duncan P. McKinnon and Bryan S. Haley
University of Alabama Press, 2017
The latest on the rapidly growing use of innovative archaeological remote sensing for anthropological applications in North America
 
Updating the highly praised 2006 publication Remote Sensing in Archaeology, edited by Jay K. Johnson, Archaeological Remote Sensing in North America: Innovative Techniques for Anthropological Applications is a must-have volume for today’s archaeologist. Targeted to practitioners of archaeological remote sensing as well as students, this suite of current and exemplary applications adheres to high standards for methodology, processing, presentation, and interpretation.
 
The use of remote sensing technologies to address academic and applied archaeological and anthropological research problems is growing at a tremendous rate in North America. Fueling this growth are new research paradigms using innovative instrumentation technologies and broader-area data collection methods. Increasingly, investigators pursuing these new approaches are integrating remote sensing data collection with theory-based interpretations to address anthropological questions within larger research programs.
 
In this indispensable volume, case studies from around the country demonstrate the technically diverse and major remote sensing methods and their integration with relevant technologies, such as geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS), and include various uses of the “big four”: magnetometry, resistivity, ground-penetrating radar (GPR), and electromagnetic induction.
 
The study explores four major anthropological themes: site structure and community organization; technological transformation and economic change; archaeological landscapes; and earthen mound construction and composition. Concluding commentary from renowned expert Kenneth L. Kvamme overviews the practices, advances, and trends of geophysics and remote sensing in the past decade.
 
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front cover of Archaeology, Volcanism, and Remote Sensing in the Arenal Region, Costa Rica
Archaeology, Volcanism, and Remote Sensing in the Arenal Region, Costa Rica
Edited by Payson D. Sheets and Brian R. McKee
University of Texas Press, 1994

How humans adapt to life in an area prone to natural disasters is an intriguing study for the social sciences. In this volume, experts from several disciplines explore the adaptation process of prehistoric societies in the volcanic Arenal region of Costa Rica from about 2000 BC to the Spanish Conquest at about AD 1500.

The data in this volume come from a survey of the region conducted with the latest remote sensing technology. Sheets and his coauthors have compiled a detailed record of human settlements in the area, including dozens of archaeological sites and a network of prehistoric footpaths that reveals patterns of travel and communication across the region. The Arenal peoples prospered in their precarious environment apparently by taking advantage of food and lithic resources, keeping population levels low, and avoiding environmental degradation. These findings will interest a wide interdisciplinary audience in anthropology and archaeology, earth sciences, technology, geography, and human ecology.

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front cover of Blow Up the Humanities
Blow Up the Humanities
Toby Miller
Temple University Press, 2012

A short, sharp, and provocative book, Blow Up the Humanities has esteemed scholar Toby Miller declaring that there are two humanities in the United States. One is the venerable, powerful humanities of private universities; the other is the humanities of state schools, which focus mainly on job prospects. There is a class division between the two—both in terms of faculty research and student background—and it must end.

Miller critically lays waste to the system. He examines scholarly publishing as well as media and cultural studies to show how to restructure the humanities by studying popular cultural phenomena, like video games. Miller ultimately insists that these two humanities must merge in order to survive and succeed in producing an aware and concerned citizenry.

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front cover of Foliage Penetration Radar
Foliage Penetration Radar
Detection and characterisation of objects under trees
Mark E. Davis
The Institution of Engineering and Technology, 2011
This book covers all aspects of foliage penetration (FOPEN) radar, concentrating on both airborne military radar systems as well as earth resource mapping radars. It is the first concise and thorough treatment of FOPEN, covering the results of a decade-long investment by DARPA in characterizing foliage and earth surface with ultrawideband UHF and VHF synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Comparisons of the technologies for radar design and signal processing are presented, as are specific design approaches for transmitter design for operation in a dense radio frequency spectrum. Adaptive processing to remove the effects of radio and television signals from the system are also covered. In 10 years, FOPEN systems will find use in crop monitoring, land mine remediation, and creating digital maps under trees. This book will be the foundation for continued research for years to come both for radar and systems engineers in defense and earth resources companies. Government researchers, program managers and planners who have an interest in the unique capabilities of this radar technology, as well as university staff and faculty teaching radar and signal processing will find this book a critical part of their learning for years to come.
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front cover of Oceaning
Oceaning
Governing Marine Life with Drones
Adam Fish
Duke University Press, 2024
Drones are revolutionizing ocean conservation. By flying closer and seeing more, drones enhance intimate contact between ocean scientists and activists and marine life. In the process, new dependencies between nature, technology, and humans emerge, and a paradox becomes apparent: Can we have a wild ocean whose survival is reliant upon technology? In Oceaning, Adam Fish answers this question through eight stories of piloting drones to stop the killing of porpoises, sharks, and seabirds and to check the vitality of whales, seals, turtles, and coral reefs. Drone conservation is not the end of nature. Instead, drone conservation results in an ocean whose flourishing both depends upon and escapes the control of technologies. Faulty technology, oceanic and atmospheric turbulence, political corruption, and the inadequacies of basic science serve to foil governance over nature. Fish contends that what emerges is an ocean/culture—a flourishing ocean that is distinct from but exists alongside humanity.
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front cover of Remote Sensing and GIS in Ecosystem Management
Remote Sensing and GIS in Ecosystem Management
Edited by V. Alaric Sample
Island Press, 1994

Recent advances in remote-sensing technology and the processing of remote-sensing data through geographic information systems (GIS) present ecologists and resource managers with a tremendously valuable tool -- but only if they are able to understand its capabilities and capture its potential.

Remote Sensing and GIS in Ecosystem Management identifies and articulates current and emerging information needs of those involved with the management of forest ecosystems. It explores the potential of remote-sensing/GIS technologies to address those needs, examining:

  • the need for landscape-scale analysis to support forest ecosystem research and management
  • current challenges in the development of remote-sensing/GIS applications
  • case studies of different forest regions in the United States
  • the potential for further development or declassification of military and aerospace remote-sensing/GIS technologies
As well as providing important information for ecologists and resource managers, the book will serve as a valuable resource for legislative and judicial policymakers who do not have a technical background in either remote sensing or resource management but who are nonetheless called upon to make decisions regarding the protection and management of forest ecosystems.
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front cover of Remote Sensing in Archaeology
Remote Sensing in Archaeology
An Explicitly North American Perspective
Edited by Jay K. Johnson
University of Alabama Press, 2006
The coming of age of a technology first developed in the 1950s.
 
All the money spent by the United States space program is not spent looking at the stars. NASA is composed of a vast and varied network of scientists across the academic spectrum involved in research and development programs that have wide application on planet Earth. Several of the leaders in the field of remote sensing and archaeology were recently brought together for a NASA-funded workshop in Biloxi, Mississippi. The workshop was organized specifically to show these archaeologists and cultural resource managers how close we are to being able to “see” under the dirt in order to know where to excavate before ever putting a shovel in the ground. As the book that resulted from this workshop demonstrates, this fantasy is quickly becoming a reality.

In this volume, eleven archaeologists reveal how the broad application of remote sensing, and especially geophysical techniques, is altering the usual conduct of dirt archaeology. Using case studies that both succeeded and failed, they offer a comprehensive guide to remote sensing techniques on archaeological sites throughout North America. Because this new technology is advancing on a daily basis, the book is accompanied by a CD intended for periodic update that provides additional data and illustrations.
 
with contributions by: R. Berle Clay, Lawrence B. Conyers, Rinita A. Dalan, Marco Giardino, Thomas J. Green, Michael L. Hargrave, Bryan S. Haley, Jay K. Johnson, Kenneth L. Kvamme, J. J. Lockhart, Lewis Somers
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front cover of Spying with Maps
Spying with Maps
Surveillance Technologies and the Future of Privacy
Mark Monmonier
University of Chicago Press, 2002
Maps, as we know, help us find our way around. But they're also powerful tools for someone hoping to find you. Widely available in electronic and paper formats, maps offer revealing insights into our movements and activities, even our likes and dislikes. In Spying with Maps, the "mapmatician" Mark Monmonier looks at the increased use of geographic data, satellite imagery, and location tracking across a wide range of fields such as military intelligence, law enforcement, market research, and traffic engineering. Could these diverse forms of geographic monitoring, he asks, lead to grave consequences for society? To assess this very real threat, he explains how geospatial technology works, what it can reveal, who uses it, and to what effect.

Despite our apprehension about surveillance technology, Spying with Maps is not a jeremiad, crammed with dire warnings about eyes in the sky and invasive tracking. Monmonier's approach encompasses both skepticism and the acknowledgment that geospatial technology brings with it unprecedented benefits to governments, institutions, and individuals, especially in an era of asymmetric warfare and bioterrorism. Monmonier frames his explanations of what this new technology is and how it works with the question of whether locational privacy is a fundamental right. Does the right to be left alone include not letting Big Brother (or a legion of Little Brothers) know where we are or where we've been? What sacrifices must we make for homeland security and open government?

With his usual wit and clarity, Monmonier offers readers an engaging, even-handed introduction to the dark side of the new technology that surrounds us—from traffic cameras and weather satellites to personal GPS devices and wireless communications.
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