Remote Sensing Scientist

Do you want to see the world without leaving your office? You can do it as a Remote Sensing Scientist. Using your advanced knowledge of geographic information systems and mapmaking, you bring together information gathered from a variety of remote sensing sources (satellites, airplanes, etc.) into a usable form: maps!

Leading a team of other Scientists and Remote Sensing Technicians, and working with a Remote Sensing Analyst, you create maps for governments, businesses, and other organizations. It’s your job as a Remote Sensing Scientist to assess the organization’s needs and coordinate the team’s response. Your jobs will be as diverse as the many types of terrain found all over the world: One day, you could be mapping out a barren desert; the next, it’s a craggy, mountainous area.

Whatever the situation calls for, the Remote Sensing Scientist needs to know how to apply what they know about mapmaking, information systems, computer programming, and remote sensing to get the information you have into the form you need. Your Remote Sensing Technicians are responsible for many of the everyday tasks, but you need to coordinate the end result before passing it along to an Analyst for final inspection. Being a Remote Sensing Scientist is kind of like putting together a giant puzzle—a puzzle called the Earth.