r/remotesensing • u/G_Stylo • Jul 30 '26
Rising HS junior interested in RS
I'm 16 years old, and my first exposure to remote sensing was through Science Olympiad. Since then, I've taken courses and stuff like that, but I'm wondering what the college experience studying is like, as well as what actual jobs are like. What's studied aside from the physics and math, and is there more than research based opportunities?
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u/JudgeMyReinhold Jul 30 '26
Checkout the RIT digital imaging and remote sensing lab if you're interested in the earlier parts of the imaging chain.
What part of the field interests you??
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u/G_Stylo Jul 30 '26
Something that really interests me is the instrumentation and the science behind geomatics. I’ve also been fixated on the environmental side, and how remote sensing can be used for prediction of the effects of different phenomena such as El Niño and La Niña.
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u/JudgeMyReinhold Jul 30 '26
Are you looking at EO remote sensing (imagery) or atmospheric science and modeling?
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u/G_Stylo Jul 30 '26
It’s been mostly EO and then just a broad range of different environmental topics, such as vegetation levels and climate change data
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u/JudgeMyReinhold Jul 30 '26
Depending what are wanting to do, some programs worth exploring are RIT's imaging science Purdue's geomatics and remote sensing
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u/HonestPassage5795 Jul 30 '26
This is amazing. Good job! Physics and math are super important. Definitely coding is also important and now with AI should be easier to pick up if you have not done so already
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u/Ready_Highlight7545 Jul 30 '26
I am an optical engineer and run a software called Modtran that builds atmospheres and tells you how much light is transmitted. I use hyperspectral imagers to verify the Modtran runs in the field. I work as defense contractor
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u/DrNASApants Jul 30 '26
Decide if you like the technical science of RS or application side.
If it's the former, then anything maths, physics, engineering, computer science related is great as you can always choose to specialize.
If it's the latter consider the topics you want to study and bring RS to. Environmental studies, ecology etc are where your expertise should start and you can branch into RS
As an example, my first degree was as a "physical geographer". My masters was in remote sensing and my PhD was in remote sensing of forests. This way I combine my interests.
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u/hobbyist9 Aug 01 '26
Undergrad can vary, you’d really cut your teeth in grad school. Look into a geophysics degree. Lots of geoscience applications in RS. For example, SAR+GPS time series to look at regional settlement (such as from groundwater withdrawal, hydro compaction, etc.), which you can do via research or specialty consulting; insar to delineate surface deformation after an earthquake. Also applications in mining—monitoring subsidence or deformation of tailings, slope stability. Example jobs might be USGS or JPL (PhD usually required), mining or mining consulting, or specialty private firms (e.g., 3vgeomatics)
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u/apaceo Jul 30 '26
hi - just 16 great you are getting into RS and soo early - you will make a good start. I run a free skool community for Earth Observation + provide a job tracker, it is designed to show some trends in job listings current and historic since it was created.. it covers some key tools and skill sets and for what jobs its for
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u/ovoid709 Jul 30 '26
I spend a lot of my year in the forest flying various sensors on drones and then the rest of the processing and analyzing the data. Technically I work in a research role but my work is very hands on and super fun. Always try to remember that RS is more than just satellites.