Remote sensing imaging systems and sensors have been available for many years, developed by NASA, NOAA, and other national and international entities. The development of these sensors has historically been done with the scientific community foremost in mind; typically such sensors thus best serve to answer the scientific questions for which they were originally envisioned.
However, data from some space imagers - in particular Landsat, MODIS, ASTER, and a few others - have practical benefits to the general public, and we rely heavily on them as sources of data. Learn more about these space imagers.

UMAC regards people's needs and values as paramount, and then works backwards to what science is the means to those ends, which leads ultimately to what data must be acquired. Since often the available data do not meet completely the specific needs in the Northern Great Plains, we must develop the capability to build remote sensors, the platforms they will go upon, and ground stations for communications with and control of those platforms.

UND's Airborne Environmental Research Observational Camera (AEROCam) is a multi-spectral aerial digital imaging system, capable of acquiring data in four visible and near-infrared bands. Applications range from vegetative analysis (for research, agriculture, or natural resource applications) to disaster/rapid response. AEROCam has been operational since 2004, and continues to bring the benefits of aerial multi-spectral imagery to end users from across the UMAC region. Read more about AEROCam to learn how you can participate in our airborne imaging project.

The International Space Station Agricultural Camera (ISSAC™) sensor is a 2-band multi-spectral sensor designed for use onboard the International Space Station. When completed ISSAC will provide an unprecedented combination of repeat access time, spatial resolution, and spectral bandpass capability targeted directly to the needs of agricultural users in the northern Great Plains. Under development since 2002, ISSAC was delivered via space shuttle to the International Space Station in November of 2008. Read more about ISSAC to find out about it's expected capabilities.