Multispectral scanner
Also called: MSS · Topic: Remote Sensing, GIS and GNSS · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Introduction to Remote Sensing"
Meaning
A multispectral scanner (MSS) is a non-photographic sensor, which means it does not use film. It builds an image bit by bit, line by line, as it sweeps across its view. A mirror directs the incoming energy onto detectors. The scanner records energy in several spectral bands at once and stores it as digital numbers. Because the output is digital, computers can correct, enhance and classify it directly.
Example
Landsat, launched by the USA from 1972, carried a Multispectral Scanner with 80 m cells. It recorded the earth's land in several bands and began the longest continuous satellite record of the land surface.
Don't confuse with
- Photographic sensor: a camera records the whole scene on film in one exposure. A scanner builds the image line by line as digital data.
Related concepts
- Sensor
- Photographic sensor
- Swath
- Whiskbroom scanner
- Instantaneous field of view
- Pushbroom scanner
- Passive and active remote sensing
- Radar
- Synthetic aperture radar
- LiDAR