Kanya the Remote Sensor

Well since it is lunch time and I feel like making my work sound more exciting than it really is…I thought I would write a blog about it.

So I am a remote sensor. Eek well remote sensing is the collection of information about objects/features without physically touching them. We carry out remote sensing every time we take a picture of someone….our camera captures the response of us based on what we reflect. Yes so you are also a remote sensors too.

But my type of remote sensing is a bit more complicated because instead of photographs I work with images generated from satellites. You are correct, satellites are those things that float around in space. There are a number of satellites that capture different types of information about our earth at different times. Tracker uses satellites to track where your car is a, a GPS uses satellites to provide us with location based information. Some satellites focus on climate others specialise in vegetation and so on. The really great satellites capture great detail spatially (measurement of a pixel – the smaller the pixel size the better) and spectrally (# of bands that the satellite captures information about – the more bands the better). These are the really expensive satellites and are required for exceptional precision and detail….we talking hyperspectral images where you can map what is beneath the ground.

I am currently using Landsat Satellite imagery to produce a basic Landcover map for a couple of African river basins. Landsat spatial resolution is 30m which isn’t the greatest because that is as zoomed in as you can get…30m. However Landsat has a pretty decent spectral resolution of 7 bands which allows you to capture more spectral information like types of vegetation. The other benefit of using Landsat is its affordability as it is freely available on the internet. However for projects such as mine I needed to purchase the imagery because all the images needed to be taken during the same time of the year and I needed them to be in the best condition as possible.
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This job isn’t always easy. It requires good software to process the images, such as Erdas or Envi, which can be very expensive. Also a number of processes need to be achieved before your image can be classified. Now that I have gone through all the stages – like removing the atmospheric effects (Haze and clouds), geometrically correcting each image (so that they actually fit accurately on a map)…ect...I am now classifying the images.

Classification is probably the best part of my job. It would have been ideal if I had been in the field before I had started mapping. But due to budget constrains and the purpose of this map field studies prior to classification wasn’t needed. This is where Google earth becomes very handy as I am able to zoom into areas and confirm features/landcover types much quicker than I would have done in the field. I feel like I am flying around the world to places I have never been, observing cultivated fields, wetlands, rivers, lakes ect. I can imagine what it would be like to be on the ground some areas are just so remote I wonder if people have even touched the land there.
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The benefits of being in my organisation is that I am able to confirm with in-house wetland experts and ecologist about features and landscape patterns that may not be familiar with to me. I need to make sure that the map I produce for the field visit is as accurate as I can get it. Later on this month our field experts will be going into the field to confirm if I got my classes correct. If not …it would be back to the drawing board.
So thats Kanya the remote sensor in a nut shell .


(The images in this blog show a river flowing over a different band of rock type which caused the river to braid). One image is from landsat(top) and the other is google earth (bottom). Notice the differences in resolution. ...google being more detailed.

Reflections: Past, Present, Future

I was very interested in an article I read in the August issue of Oprah Magazine. It was letters to famous/successful ladies younger self from their older self. I know that sounds complicated but simply put the letters were words of encouragement during the tough times of their careers when they were younger.

For example one story was of Founder of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics. She writes encouragements of how although she may not look like all her friends…tall and blonde,….she is still unique and had other qualities. .. here is a quote from the letter
“Your feeling of uncertainty as you’re trying to figure out what your life’s passion is won’t go away over night. You’ll feel lost at university. One day your mom will ask, ‘If you could do anything you wanted, what would you do?” You’ll say, somewhat hopelessly:” I’d go play with make-up at the cosmetics counter.” That’s when your mom will help you find Emerson College, where you’ll major in theatrical make-up”

She finished her letter by saying “Oh my God, if you’d told me when I was in high school that one day I’d take my eldest to Stanford University, That I’d be successful and have this amazing life, I’d never have believed it” Do you believe it now?

Isn’t it amazing how the struggles of our lives are actually the moments when we learn the most from God. It made me reflect on my “old self” and realise how confused I was at certain stages yet God was right there! When I was on my last penny and didn’t think I could finish my Masters (due to lack of motivation)…God pulled through. I remember sitting in my professors (Richard Kellys) office and crying (which I had done numerous times before), he said to me “Kanya I can see you one day Managing a Remote Sensing Department.” Yet here I am in a organisation which allowed me to build the department up from scratch…okay maybe it is a small department…but I must say I didn’t think I could have done it. When I didn’t believe I could love again he showed me how to love unconditionally.

After reading this I thought of my unpredictable future and imagined what my letter would be to myself now. Who would that “SOMEONE” be whoever she is I have no doubt that God would have used the ups and downs of today to weave me into a perfect quilt, with the colours and beads of a Kanya life.

Although I wrote this about me, my hope is that you would think of yourselves in this light. We all need to be encouraged and whatever it is you are going through there is a light! HIS time is so perfectly made for you just let GOD shine on your life.

ROAD RAGE = GAME OVER

The drive from Swaziland is 3.5 hours and the only way I can survive the journey is by playing "GAMES" with other drivers, but they don't know I am playing them. My favourite game is racing with Skoro Skoros (lousy cars) not the exceptionally slow ones because that’s just boring, but the ones that race past you down a hill and then struggle up a hill because of lack of VUMA, aka power. But the events of yesterday made me reconsider my Games.

As I was enjoying these games of mine one Skoro Skoro red truck car pulled up behind me while I was in the fast lane over taking. It would have been fine if he just relaxed but he decided to flash his lights franticly like he was in some major rush. GAME OVER for Kanya. I got so frustrated because I couldn’t move any faster coz there was a slower car in front of me and there were cars back to back on my left. I can completely understand if I was going slow in the fast lane….but IT WASN”T MY fault. So my game for entertainment purposes turned into a 1 hour …. “get back at the RED TRUCK”. Mean while Avon was fast asleep in the passenger side. This car was useless…. it couldn’t handle the hills at all. I managed to get to a point where I was in the fast lane and he was trying to over take me because now we were kind of going down hill but there was a BMW behind pushing him. I sped up, ever so slightly, just enough speed to irritate the guy behind him. The BMW was hovering and almost flashing his lights. I kept driving looking ahead as if I had no idea what was going on. But in my mind I was like …SEE HOW IT FEEL…SUCKER! I WIN J.

So we get of the N4 and travel on the N1 south to Wits Uni coz we had to drop of a Patrick (family friend who was passed out sleeping in the back). I was a lot calmer coz I had won the competition with the RED TRUCK. But just when I thought I was calm a White Van suddenly appears right at my tail, nearly kissing my ass. I was already going 120km/hour. Now that my passengers were awake I couldn’t express my anger to the Van, yet I let out a …”relax guy!”. But what I really wanted to do was raise my hand and pull down my glasses and give this guy a huge greasy (piercing look). This guy was in a serious hurry and as I watched his real skoro skorro van, with a plastic bagged back window, weave through the traffic I just thought, “what an idiot, I am not even going to play a game on you, coz you are going to cause an accident.”

Good thing I didn’t play and games because not even 5 minutes later on the M1 before the Empire exit I see serious action ahead in the fast lane. I was in the fast lane driving towards a scene where I saw someone pulling someone roughly out of the car. I thought for sure this was an accident. HECK NO because from the side profile I saw the biggest gun I have ever seen in my whole life. Now I am driving right towards it. I FREAK out. Put on my hazard lights…then realise by doing that I can’t switch into the left lane to avoid the action. It was like a movie. The Police were holding huge guns to the people who were driving the Skoro skoro Van. By this time the back window was out (Avon thinks someone tried to escape). My heart was racing because all I could think about was a SHOOT OUT. This was no GAME any more. Although I played the Game in my head. I would be the Hero who would shout “ GET DOWN!” and would speed through the traffic and bullets like I knew what I was doing.

Although technically I won the Game with the Skoro Skorro Van, I really reconsidered playing the game again. What if I did give the guys a huge greasy (look with piercing eyes)? That would be GAME OVER for Kanya.