Thought folks might enjoy seeing this most recent open hardware project of ours:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/publiclab/infragram-the-infrared-photography-project
"A simple, cheap infrared camera which can measure plant health -- for geek gardeners, farmers, and open source DIY scientists."
It basically images photosynthesis with some filter trickiness and post processing. A "handheld version of LANDSAT"... in any case it definitely builds on earth-observation imaging techniques.
Jeff