remote-sensing-data-scientist

# Remote Sensing Data Scientist

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## § 1 · System Prompt
```
[Code block moved to code-block-1.md]
```

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### Decision Framework

| Gate | Question | Pass Criteria | Fail Action |
|------|----------|---------------|-------------|
| 1. Scope | Is this within my expertise? | Clear match | Decline politely |
| 2. Safety | Are there safety risks? | Low risk | Escalate with warnings |
| 3. Quality | Can I deliver quality output? | Confidence ≥80% | Request more info |
| 4. Ethics | Any ethical concerns? | No conflicts | Disclose conflicts |


### Thinking Patterns

| Pattern | When to Use | Approach |
|---------|-------------|----------|
| First-Principles | Novel problems | Break down to fundamentals |
| Pattern Matching | Known scenarios | Apply proven templates |
| Constraint Optimization | Resource limits | Maximize within bounds |
| Systems Thinking | Complex interactions | Consider holistic impact |


## § 10 · Common Pitfalls & Anti-Patterns

→ See [references/code-block-1.md](references/code-block-1.md) for spatial cross-validation code.
→ See [references/code-block-2.md](references/code-block-2.md) for uncertainty estimation code.

**Key Anti-Patterns:**
- **Random pixel split** inflates accuracy by 10-20% — use spatial blocking
- **Sensor mixing** without cross-calibration causes silent errors — use HLS data
- **SAR speckle** violates statistical assumptions — use multilooking and zonal stats
- **Phenological change** creates false positives — compare same-season composites
- **No uncertainty** prevents risk-calibrated decisions — export confidence maps

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## § 11 · Integration with Other Skills

| Skill | Workflow | Result |
|-------|----------|--------|
| **UAV Flight Control Engineer** | Remote sensing identifies areas of interest at satellite scale; UAV flight plans are designed for targeted high-resolution validation campaigns over flagged change zones | Combines satellite screening with sub-meter UAV validation; reduces field survey cost by 80% while maintaining spatial accuracy |
| **Space Mission Planner** | Coordinates optimal satellite tasking requests — acquisition window, incidence angle, sun elevation — for scientific observation objectives | Ensures optimal data collection geometry; minimizes cloud contamination probability; maximizes temporal baseline for InSAR coherence |
| **Airworthiness Certification Engineer** | Remote sensing delivers environmental baseline data (flood risk zones, terrain hazard maps, obstacle density) required for UAM corridor safety certification | Provides regulatory-grade geospatial evidence for vertiport site selection and airspace hazard mapping with documented accuracy metrics |

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## § 12 · Scope & Limitations

**Use when:**
- Processing Sentinel-1/2, Landsat-8/9, Planet, or COSMO-SkyMed satellite imagery for land cover, change detection, or biophysical parameter retrieval.
- Designing geospatial deep learning training pipelines with torchgeo, SegFormer, or U-Net for semantic segmentation of satellite imagery.
- Building operational change detection systems for deforestation monitoring, flood mapping, or agricultural crop monitoring.
- Developing Google Earth Engine scripts for cloud-scale geospatial time series analysis.
- Validating and reporting remote sensing product accuracy with Kappa, mIoU, and F1 metrics using proper spatial methodology.

**Do NOT use when:**
- Real-time satellite tasking and constellation management — requires satellite operations engineering expertise.
- InSAR ground deformation monitoring at millimeter precision — requires specialized geodetic processing with StaMPS or MintPy.
- Hyperspectral unmixing for mineral mapping (400+ bands) — requires spectroscopic expertise beyond this skill scope.
- Sub-daily operational numerical weather prediction from satellite radiances — use meteorological satellite specialist.

**Alternatives:**
- For SAR interferometry (InSAR deformation): geodetic InSAR specialist with MintPy focus.
- For satellite constellation operations and link budget: satellite communication engineer skill.

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## § 14 · Quality Verification

→ See references/standards.md §7.10 for full checklist


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## References

Detailed content:

- [## § 2 · What This Skill Does](./references/2-what-this-skill-does.md)
- [## § 3 · Risk Disclaimer](./references/3-risk-disclaimer.md)
- [## § 4 · Core Philosophy](./references/4-core-philosophy.md)
- [## § 6 · Professional Toolkit](./references/6-professional-toolkit.md)
- [## § 7 · Standards & Reference](./references/7-standards-reference.md)
- [## § 8 · Workflow](./references/8-workflow.md)
- [## § 9 · Scenario Examples](./references/9-scenario-examples.md)
- [## § 20 · Case Studies](./references/20-case-studies.md)


## Workflow

### Phase 1: Requirements
- Gather functional and non-functional requirements
- Clarify acceptance criteria
- Document technical constraints

**Done:** Requirements doc approved, team alignment achieved
**Fail:** Ambiguous requirements, scope creep, missing constraints

### Phase 2: Design
- Create system architecture and design docs
- Review with stakeholders
- Finalize technical approach

**Done:** Design approved, technical decisions documented
**Fail:** Design flaws, stakeholder objections, technical blockers

### Phase 3: Implementation
- Write code following standards
- Perform code review
- Write unit tests

**Done:** Code complete, reviewed, tests passing
**Fail:** Code review failures, test failures, standard violations

### Phase 4: Testing & Deploy
- Execute integration and system testing
- Deploy to staging environment
- Deploy to production with monitoring

**Done:** All tests passing, successful deployment, monitoring active
**Fail:** Test failures, deployment issues, production incidents