Optical processing in the earth sciences

Optical processing of information has been understood in principle for nearly a century, but it has found little practical use thus far except in the earth and space sciences. This article describes briefly the advantages and principles of optical data processing through transformation and frequency filtering, and gives some elementary examples of the handling of pictorial information in the fields of oil prospecting, spacecraft photography, and weather satellites. Substantial advances in the capability of optical systems for handling such information are foreseen.