Journal profile · Imaging Science & Photographic Technology
Remote Sensing of Environment
ISSN 0034-4257 · eISSN 1879-0704 · Elsevier Inc. · UNITED STATES · Monthly · Founded 1969
Remote Sensing of Environment: CAS Zone 1 · Earth Sciences (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal); impact factor 12.27; hybrid open access; APC about USD 4,450; review about 192 days (submission to acceptance, publisher); community-reported acceptance: about 25%; 523 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Remote Sensing of Environment is published by Elsevier Inc. and is in Zone 1 of Earth Sciences in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Remote Sensing in Agriculture, Remote Sensing and LiDAR Applications and Land Use and Ecosystem Services, together about 33% of its articles. Its main subfields are Environmental Engineering and Global and Planetary Change. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Remote Sensing of Environment (RSE) serves the Earth observation community with the publication of results on the theory, science, applications, and technology of studies contributing to advance the science of remote sensing. Thoroughly interdisciplinary, RSE publishes on terrestrial, oceanic and atmospheric sensing. The emphasis of the journal is on biophysical and quantitative approaches to remote sensing at local to global scales and covers a wide range of applications and techniques:ApplicationsLand cover mapping, vegetation species identification and mappingLand surface energy and water balanceDisturbance (fire, insect, harvest)Agriculture (crop mapping, yield prediction, phenology, soil properties, management practices)Forest and rangeland productivity and inventoriesEcological applications & Ecosystem services (wetland, biodiversity, habitat, animal population, etc.)Urban applications (mapping, energy consumption, population, etc.)Terrestrial ecosystem productivity and carbon cyclesSoil properties (moisture, organic matter, texture, structure, etc.)Geological Applications (minerals, landslide, subsidence, geomorphology, earth quake, etc.)Hydrology and water resourcesInland and coastal watersOceanography and marine scienceCryosphere, mapping and modellingAtmospheric science and meteorologySnow, ice and glaciersTechniques & MethodsFeature extraction from RS images: segmentation and classification, surface structural, biochemical or physiological traits estimation from RS dataRadiative transfer modellingMachine and deep learning for RS data analysisRS Data assimilationSatellite time series analysis & change detectionSatellite data fusion (spectral, spatial and temporal)Satellite sensor systems characterization including radiometric and geometric calibrationNew remote sensing missions and systemsThe journal Remote Sensing of Environment invites proposals for Special Issues. For more details on the SI proposal process and how to submit a SI, please refer to the relevant section - Journal Specific Information - of the Guide for Authors.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Imaging Science & Photographic Technology
Editor-in-chief Jing. M. ChenPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 23 in mainland China (about 25%); most named United States 29, Mainland China 23, Canada 8, Hong Kong, China 6, United Kingdom 4 (92 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Remote Sensing in AgricultureEnvironmental Science18.8%
- Remote Sensing and LiDAR ApplicationsEnvironmental Science8.9%
- Land Use and Ecosystem ServicesEnvironmental Science5.3%
- Cryospheric studies and observationsEarth and Planetary Sciences5.1%
- Urban Heat Island MitigationEnvironmental Science5%
- Plant Water Relations and Carbon DynamicsEnvironmental Science4.9%
- Soil Moisture and Remote SensingEnvironmental Science4.4%
- Atmospheric and Environmental Gas DynamicsEnvironmental Science4%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Earth Sciences Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Earth Sciences | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Environmental Sciences | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Imaging Science & Photographic Technology | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Remote Sensing | Zone 1 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Earth Sciences Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Earth Sciences | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Environmental Sciences | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Remote Sensing | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Imaging Science & Photographic Technology | Zone 1 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Earth Sciences Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Earth Sciences | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Environmental Sciences | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Imaging Science & Photographic Technology | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Remote Sensing | Zone 1 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIEScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor
- 12.27LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 12.3Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 22.8LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 22.8Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 4.27LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 3.14LetPub ·
- h-index
- 238LetPub ·
- h-index
- 459OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 9,762OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 11.62OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 8.9%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 42.49%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 479LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 12,092 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 400 | 217 | 502 |
| 2025 | 523 | 274 | 4,323 |
| 2024 | 519 | 325 | 11,934 |
| 2023 | 433 | 287 | 17,156 |
| 2022 | 450 | 301 | 23,466 |
| 2021 | 492 | 357 | 37,508 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with PubMed · to
Too few articlesOnly 1 articles from the last 24 months carry both submission and acceptance dates, too few for a median
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Figures by source
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 3.3 monthsLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- 25%LetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 2 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 192 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 9 daysPublisher website ·
- Peer review
- Single anonymous peer reviewPublisher website
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Hybrid open accessLetPub
A subscription journal in which authors can pay to publish their article open access.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAlex | USD 4,450 / EUR 4,160 / GBP 3,560 / JPY 551,930 | — | — | |
| Publisher website | USD 4,310 | — | — |
A hybrid journal charges the APC only when the author chooses open access; publishing under the subscription model is usually free.
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
Open calls for papers3, by deadline
- Geospatial Foundation Models for Advancing Remote Sensing of EnvironmentDeadline
- Remote sensing of leaf traits, canopy structure, ecosystem function, and services (in honor of Dr. Jing Ming Chen)Deadline
- Geostationary Ocean Color Remote Sensing Data for Improved Understanding of Surface Ocean BiogeochemistryDeadline
What to prepare6 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≤ 250 words
- Keywords
- 1–7
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 15,000 words
- Reference style
- Author–date
- Highlights
- Required
- Graphical abstract
- Optional
Article types accepted11, with length limits
- literature reviewOriginal Research ArticlesOriginal Research Articles describe important significant new results or methods that will advance the science or application of remot…Length not stated
- original researchOriginal Research ArticlesOriginal Research Articles describe important significant new results or methods that will advance the science or application of remot…Length not stated
- original research articlesOriginal Research Articles describe important significant new results or methods that will advance the science or application of remote sensing.Length not stated
- perspectiveOriginal Research ArticlesOriginal Research Articles describe important significant new results or methods that will advance the science or application of remot…Length not stated
- research articleOriginal Research ArticlesOriginal Research Articles describe important significant new results or methods that will advance the science or application of remot…main text ≤ 15,000 words
- research paperOriginal Research ArticlesOriginal Research Articles describe important significant new results or methods that will advance the science or application of remot…Length not stated
- reviewOriginal Research ArticlesOriginal Research Articles describe important significant new results or methods that will advance the science or application of remot…Length not stated
- review articleOriginal Research ArticlesOriginal Research Articles describe important significant new results or methods that will advance the science or application of remot…main text ≤ 20,000 words
- review articlesReview Articles are expected to provide a thorough review of the current state-of-the-art of an important subject, providing a synthesis of previous work beyond…Length not stated
- short communicationOriginal Research ArticlesOriginal Research Articles describe important significant new results or methods that will advance the science or application of remot…main text ≤ 5,000 words
- short communicationsShort Communication papers are intended to publish significant new techniques, data, or results in a timely manner where expansion to a full-length paper may ca…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAI use, Authorship, Conflicts of interest, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Preprints
- AI use Declaration of generative AI use
Authors must declare the use of generative AI tools in the manuscript preparation process upon submission of the paper.Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies (“AI tools”) have been rapidly adopted in research and scholarly publishing, offering significant benefits while requiring clear standards for responsible and transparent use.Authors preparing a manuscript for this journal may use AI tool…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Authorship Group authorship
Group authorship refers to the attribution of an article to a defined and named group of authors whose members have contributed to the work. Examples include research consortia, clinical trial groups, collaborative networks, task forces or working groups, expert panels or consensus groups, and participatory research groups. Group authorship must be declared on the title page at submission. When av…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Declaration of competing interests
All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence or bias their work. Examples of potential competing interests include:EmploymentConsultanciesStock ownershipHonorariaPaid expert testimonyPatent applications or registrationsGrants or any other fundingAffiliation with the journal as an Editor or Advisory Board …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright License options
Authors will be offered open access user license options which will determine how you, and third parties, can reuse your open access article. We advise that you review these options and any funding body license requirements before selecting a license option.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open access
We refer you to our open access information page to learn about open access options for this journal.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review
Single anonymized review process Model summary
This journal follows a single anonymized review process. Your submission will initially be assessed by our editors. If your submission is deemed suitable, it will typically be sent to be reviewed by a minimum of two reviewers for an independent expert assessment of the scientific quality. The decision as to whether your article is accepted or rejected for publication will be made by our editors.Re…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
Preprint sharingAuthors may share preprints in line with Elsevier's article sharing policy. Sharing preprints, such as on a preprint server, will not count as prior publication.We advise you to read our policy on multiple, redundant or concurrent publication. In support of Open Science, this journal offers its authors a free preprint posting service on SSRN, Elsevier’s preprint and early research …
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- Elsevier Inc.
- Country or region
- UNITED STATES
- Language
- English
- Frequency
- Monthly
- Founded
- 1969
- ISSN
- 0034-4257
- Electronic ISSN
- 1879-0704
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Remote Sensing of Environment
What CAS zone is Remote Sensing of Environment in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Remote Sensing of Environment is in Zone 1 of Earth Sciences, and in Zone 1 of the minor category Environmental Sciences / Imaging Science & Photographic Technology / Remote Sensing; it is a Top journal. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 1 of Earth Sciences. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Remote Sensing of Environment?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 12.27; CiteScore 22.8, h-index 459.
How long does peer review take at Remote Sensing of Environment?
The publisher reports about 192 days (submission to acceptance); authors report an average review time of about 3.3 months; the community-reported acceptance is “about 25%”. Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
What are the manuscript requirements of Remote Sensing of Environment?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 250 words; Keywords: 1–7; Manuscript length: ≤ 15,000 words; Reference style: Author–date; Highlights: Required; Graphical abstract: Optional. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Where are the editorial board members of Remote Sensing of Environment based?
Of the 92 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 23 (about 25%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (29), Mainland China (23) and Canada (8). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Remote Sensing of Environment?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Remote Sensing of Environment is indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Is Remote Sensing of Environment open access, and what is the APC?
Remote Sensing of Environment is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC about USD 4,450.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-26). Last updated: .