Coarse spatial resolution, high temporal frequency data from the earth polar orbiting satellites and from the geostationary satellites are presented to demonstrate their utility for monitoring terrestrial and atmospheric processes. The main characteristics of these satellites and of the instruments on board are reviewed. In order to be useful for environmental assessments, the remotely sensed data must be processed. The NOAA center provides a wide range of already processed data; a rough description of these preprocessed data is given in this article. Finally some examples of application in Southeast Asia especially Indonesia are described. The paper concludes that coarse resolution, high temporal frequency satellite data are very valuable for environmental studies, the emphasis being laid on the improvement of the crop and brought assessment programs.