History and Mission

Remote sensing research, focusing on forestry applications of aerial photography, began at the University of Minnesota in 1952. Twenty years later, the Remote Sensing Laboratory was established in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences . To reflect the key role of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the lab's research and analysis, the lab was eventually renamed the Remote Sensing and Geospatial Analysis Laboratory (RSGL). Today, the RSGL focuses primarily on computer-aided analysis of digital multispectral satellite data and GIS.