The first view of Earth from space inspired ecologists to understand the Earth as an integrated system and to observe interactions among ecological systems across multiple scales. Since then, the technology of remote sensing has advanced considerably and now enables us to measure, characterize, and quantify ecosystem properties and processes at space and time scales not available to us otherwise. During the past decade of ecological research, spaceborne and airborne sensors have improved greatly, along with our ability to process and analyze their data, and to apply it in address of pressing research questions about biodiversity, landscapes, land use and land cover, primary productivity, and biogeochemical cycling. New observations and enhanced understanding have proven useful for resource-management decision making; disaster detection and mitigation associated with fires, insect outbreaks, storms, and floods; agricultural management; and basic ecological research. This symposium will highlight new, advanced applications of current remote sensing data in a diverse set of ecological studies addressing topics from conservation to global terrestrial metabolism. The research presented will emphasize the new ecological knowledge and applications resulting from technological advances. The symposium will update the community concerning current availability of remote sensing resources and new applications advancing study of ecological processes through the enhanced observational system. Highlights include the use of hyper-spectral observations to discern ecological biogeochemistry and physiological condition, studies of landscape pattern and dynamics, and data-model fusion techniques which couple observations across spatial and temporal scales with ecological models. Finally, presentations will address anticipated advances in ecological studies made possible by currently planned new satellite missions.