Volunteered remote sensing data generation with air passengers as sensors

ABSTRACT Remote sensing satellites are playing very important roles in diverse earth observation fields. However, long revisit period, high cost and dense cloud cover have been the main limitations of satellite remote sensing for a long time. This paper introduces the novel volunteered passenger aircraft remote sensing (VPARS) concept, which can partly overcome these problems. By obtaining aerial imaging data from passengers using a portable smartphone on a passenger aircraft, it has various advantages including low cost, high revisit, dense coverage, and partial anti-cloud, which can well complement conventional remote sensing data. This paper examines the concept of VPARS and give general data processing framework of VPARS. Several cases were given to validate this processing approach. Two preliminary applications on land cover classification and economic activity monitoring validate the applicability of the VPARS data. Furthermore, we examine the issues about data maintenance, potential applications, limitations and challenges. We conclude the VPARS can benefit both scientific and industrial communities who rely on remote sensing data.