Sensor

The term sensor, also referred to aboard starships as subspace sensors or sensor probes, was used to refer to any device that was used to scan, record, or otherwise observe any aspect of an environment surrounding a starship, space station, or person. This could be as simple a device as a manual camera or light sensor, or as complicated as the myriad devices designed to scan many aspects of the matter and energies of subspace, space, time, and stellar bodies that make up all of existence.

Sensor probe
While the term "sensor probe" was used to indicate sensors used for probing, the term also referred to a specific type of automated probe, used by Starfleet. Such a probe was launched by the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) to scan Delphi Ardu IV in 2364 and to monitor a convoy used as bait for the Maquis in 2370. The USS Valiant (NCC-74210) also used such a probe to study the Jem'Hadar battleship in 2374. 

Use on vessels
Sensors of various types played roles in almost every aspect of space travel. Every type of sensor from navigational sensors to ARA sensors created data to be interpreted by the vessels computers and operators. In most situations, the sensor data revealed information that was not apparent through other data collecting means, such as visual observations. One example of this was in the sensor data of the USS Voyager during one encounter with the Borg. Sensor readings from the ships active scans recorded "random subspace energy fluctuations" at various time index in the sensor logs. Closer examination of this data revealed the detections were not random fluctuations but communications to Seven of Nine, one of Voyager's crew. 

Sensor scans
There were two basic types of sensor arrays employed: passive and active. A passive scan was less obtrusive than an active scan, and might not be detected by the subject being sensed. Sensors were divided further into short- and long-range types and low and high energy types. 

While there are many ways to mask a sensor scan, sensor screens were the most commonly used. One could also mask a sensor scan with certain materials, or radiation. Sensors and communications can also be disrupted by interference from a planet's troposphere and ionosphere. But to truly hide from a sensor scan, one would actually have to change one's molecular structure. 

In 2364, prior to stardate 41775, the Federation starships USS Puget Sound and USS Ganymede were ordered by a Starfleet admiral not to scan a particular subsector with a high energy scan. 

In early 2368, when investigating the Phoenix Cluster, the lateral sensors of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) were booked solid for planetary observation. 

Sensors were used by the Vahklas, a Vulcan civilian transport ship, which had left the planet Vulcan in approximately 2143. When Subcommander T'Pol was studying the Arachnid Nebula aboard the Vahklas in 2151, she was temporarily unable to scan the nebula's disodium layer, due to the fact that the transport ship's lateral sensors were out of alignment. 

Implementation on vessels
The Starfleet vessel was equipped with a lateral sensor array. When Captain Jonathan Archer and Commander Charles Tucker III were inspecting the new prototype ship in an inspection pod during 2151, one of the components that Archer wanted to view was the lateral sensor array. 

In 2370, the Romulan warbird Terix performed a sensor scan of Asteroid gamma 601 in the Devolin system with its lateral sensor array in hope to locate the USS Pegasus. 

starships were equipped with high-resolution, multi-spectral sensors. 

Types of scans

 * antiproton beam
 * autonomic response analysis
 * geological scan
 * high-resolution scan
 * passive high-resolution series
 * internal scan
 * long range sensor scan
 * magneton scan
 * navigational scan
 * multiphasic scan
 * subspace differential pulse
 * Inverse tachyon pulse
 * virtual positron imaging scan