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GIS, remote sensing & field notes.

SEO-friendly, plain-English guides to the satellite imagery, indices and survey workflows I use — written to help students and early-career geospatial analysts.

Landsat Band Combinations: Which to Use and When

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8 Jun 20267 min read

Landsat Band Combinations: Which to Use and When

A practical reference guide to Landsat 8 and 9 band combinations — natural color, false color, agriculture, and more — with Indian landscape contexts including the IGP, Punjab croplands, and Deccan scrub.

landsat band combinationsremote sensinggis indiafalse color composite

7 Jun 20267 min

Sentinel-2 Cloud Masking: SCL Band vs. s2cloudless Compared

A technical comparison of Sentinel-2's built-in SCL band and the s2cloudless ML model for cloud masking, with a focus on Indian monsoon conditions where cloud cover disrupts agricultural monitoring and flood mapping.

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6 Jun 20266 min

Red Edge Indices for Crop Stress Detection: Beyond NDVI

Red edge indices like NDRE and CIre detect crop stress weeks before NDVI saturates — here is how to apply them on Sentinel-2 imagery for Indian wheat and rice fields.

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6 Jun 20267 min

SAR Flood Mapping with Sentinel-1: How It Works and Why It Matters for India

SAR flood mapping with Sentinel-1 works through microwave backscatter contrast between water and land — and with India's new ISRO-Jal Shakti MOU, it is moving from research into operational policy. Here is how the technique actually works, step by step.

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6 Jun 20267 min

How GRACE Satellites Measure Groundwater Loss Beneath Your Feet

GRACE and GRACE-FO satellites measure tiny changes in Earth's gravitational field to track groundwater depletion from orbit — a method now central to water-resource monitoring in India and globally.

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Aerial view of lush green farmland fields in a patchwork pattern, evoking NDVI vegetation health mapping from Sentinel-2 satellite imagery

6 Jun 20266 min

Reading NDVI: turning Sentinel-2 into vegetation insight

NDVI turns red and near-infrared bands into a simple measure of how green and healthy vegetation is. Here is how I compute and read it from Sentinel-2 and Landsat in my Punjab and Delhi NCT work.

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Surveyor using a GNSS receiver on a survey tripod in an open field, illustrating ground control point measurement for accurate drone mapping

29 May 20267 min

GCPs and GNSS: how to get drone maps to line up

A practical guide to ground control points and GNSS for accurate drone maps, drawn from my UAV photogrammetry work at IIT Roorkee using Emlid Reach RS3 and Trimble DA.

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Data analytics dashboard with charts and graphs on a screen, representing zonal statistics and buffer analysis output in QGIS

21 May 20267 min

Buffer analysis and zonal statistics in QGIS, explained

A practical guide to buffer zones and zonal statistics in QGIS for measuring environmental footprint, grounded in my Delhi NCT industrial impact work with Sentinel-2 indices.

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Laptop screen displaying data and a software interface on a desk, evoking the choice between QGIS and ArcGIS Pro GIS software

13 May 20266 min

QGIS vs ArcGIS Pro: which GIS tool should you learn?

An honest practitioner comparison of QGIS and ArcGIS Pro for GIS and remote sensing work, with cost, workflow, and practical advice for students in India.

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Aerial view of a river winding past built-up land and vegetation, illustrating NDWI water mapping and NDBI built-up land mapping

5 May 20267 min

NDWI and NDBI explained: mapping water and built-up land

A plain guide to NDWI and NDBI: the formulas, band pairs, and how I read them alongside NDVI to map water, moisture, and built-up land in India.

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Flooded paddy rice field under irrigation in northern India, illustrating the water-intensive cropping that drives Punjab groundwater depletion

27 Apr 20266 min

Groundwater depletion in Punjab: what 25 years of satellite data reveal

Punjab grows much of India's grain but is draining its aquifers fast. Here is how Landsat NDVI and NDWI change maps over 2000-2025, paired with groundwater data, expose the stress.

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Satellite orbiting above Earth in space, representing the Sentinel-2 sensor and its multispectral bands

19 Apr 20266 min

Sentinel-2 bands explained: a practical beginner guide

A plain, practical guide to Sentinel-2 bands, their 10/20/60 m resolutions, and which bands to use for NDVI, NDWI, and NDBI, with free Copernicus access.

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Aerial survey drone flying over a landscape, illustrating UAV photogrammetry from flight planning to orthomosaic generation

11 Apr 20267 min

Drone photogrammetry step by step: from flight plan to orthomosaic

A field-tested guide to UAV photogrammetry, from flight planning and ground control to processing an orthomosaic, DSM, and point cloud, drawn from my survey work at IIT Roorkee.

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Student working on a laptop at a desk while studying, representing learning GIS and remote sensing to start a career in India

3 Apr 20267 min

How to start a career in GIS and remote sensing in India

A practical roadmap to break into GIS and remote sensing in India: degrees, QGIS and ArcGIS, Python, Google Earth Engine, Esri and IIRS/ISRO certifications, projects, and where to find jobs.

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View of Earth from space with glowing connected lights, evoking Google Earth Engine planetary-scale cloud processing of satellite data

26 Mar 20267 min

Google Earth Engine: cloud remote sensing for everyone

Google Earth Engine puts decades of satellite data and planetary-scale processing in your browser. Here is what it is, why it matters, and how to start.

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