In the past 4 years, three books, worthy of special note, have 
been or are about to be published and research has been concentrated 
in three major categories. The books are: The Manual of Remote 
Sensing, Robert G. Reeves, Editor-in-Chief, American Society of 
Photogrammetry, 1975; ERTS-1, a New Window on our Planet, 
R.S. Williams, Jr., and W.D. Carter, Editors, USCS Prof. Paper 929 
(in press); and Mission to Earth:  Landsat Views the World, 
N.M. Short, P.D. Lowman, S.C. Freden, and W. A. Finch, National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration SP-360 (in press). 
The major research thrusts are: 
1) Computer-assisted enhancement and interpretation systems; 
2) earth science applications of Landsat data; and 
3) investigations of the usefulness of observations of 
luminescence, thermal infrared, and microwave energies. The results 
of these investigations are summarized in part 2 of this paper. 
The need to interrelate various types of remote sensing data and 
to integrate remote sensing data with other souces of inforamtion and 
to accommodate the wide dynamic range of electronic detectors (it is 
estimated that the dynamic range of Landsat data is four times that 
which can be accommodated on film) has led logically to emphasis in 
research and development on computer-assisted processing and interpre- 
tation systems. Interest and research in these techniques has been 
facilitated by the digital character of the data transmitted from 
Landsat satellites. 
These systems utilize "in-puts" in digital form derived either 
directly from Landsat data or by scanning other types of pictoral data. 
Once the data from each of the recorded "bands", are stored in the 
machine, they may be added, subtracted, ratioed, stretched, or other- 
wise manipulated to achieve enhancements for visual interpretation or 
classification produced by the computers. The "out-puts" of these 
systems can be in the form of optimized images, pictorial theme dis- 
plays, or maps. In addition, most of these systems produce histograms 
of reflectance distributions within the scene which can be used to guide 
reproduction and analysis and provide a means of estimating the 
precision of the result. Figure 2 shows one method of displaying the 
results of reflectance analysis provided by semi-automatic analysis 
systems. 
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