December 1998 - Number 36
EARSeL Newsletter CONTENTS
ISSN 0257-0521 1 EDITORIAL 3
Bulletin of the 2 NEWS FROM THE ASSOCIATION European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories 2.1 ECO BP'98 and the Bureau Meeting 4 Http://www-earsel.cma.fr 2.2 Retirement Gottfried Konecny 4 December 1998 - Number 36 2.3 Outcomes Data Fusion SIG Workshop 5
3 REPORT ON IS SIG WORKSHOP EARSeL Newsletter Editor 3.1 Intro 7 Dr. Ir. L.L.F. Janssen 3.2 Summary 7 Associate Professor Remote Sensing & Photogrammetry 3.3 Events 13 ITC 3.4 Conclusions and Outlook 15 P.O.Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede,The Netherlands 3.5 Acknowledgements 15 Tel: +31 53 4874414 3.6 Internet Adresses 15 Fax: +31 53 4874335 E-mail: [email protected] 4 NEWS FROM THE EC, ESA AND THE CEO 4.1 News update from the CEO programme 16
Editorial Assistant 5 RS DATA, PRODUCTS AND PROJECTS Mme. M. Godefroy 5.1 Observations 16 EARSeL Secretariat 5.2 ISPRS Jobs Directory 22 2 avenue Rapp, 75340 PARIS Cedex 07, France 5.3 ILWIS 2.2 for Windows 22 Tel: +33 1 45567360 5.4 New Environmental Observatory 23 Fax: +33 1 45567361 E-mail: [email protected] 6 REVIEWS, PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS 6.1 Window on the World 23 Published by: EARSeL Secretariat 6.2 Information from Space 25 Desk Top Publishing by: ITC DTP, Enschede, 6.3 RSS'98 Congress 26 The Netherlands 6.4 PIERS Workshop 27 Printing by: Giethoorn Ten Brink, 6.5 ABDMAP Workshop in Crete 28 Meppel,The Netherlands 6.6 US-European Collaboration in Space Science 28 Nr of copies printed: 650 6.7 ISPRS Commission VII Symposium 29
Subscription rates 1998 7 FORTHCOMING MEETINGS AND EVENTS 32 Members receive the Newsletter as part of the annual membership fee. For non-members rates are as follows: (4 issues) within Europe 450 FRF. including airmail postage outside Europe 500 FRF. personal subscription from EARSeL member laboratories’ staff 200 FRF.
EARSeL membership fees 1998 Individual observer 1700 FRF. Laboratory/company member or observer having up to 10 researchers 1700 FRF. Laboratory/company member or observer having 11 or more researchers 2700 FRF. Laboratory from Eastern Europe (for first two years membership) 850 FRF.
The Newsletter is a forum for the exchange of news and views among our members and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the editor or the EARSeL Bureau. Articles published in the EARSeL Newsletter may be reproduced but the relevant credit should be given.
1 EARSeL Newsletter December 1998 - Number 36
EARSeL CHAIRMAN Representatives of the Sponsoring Dr. Robin Vaughan Organisations Bureau A.P.E.M.E. University of Dundee EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY Dundee DD1 4HN, United Kingdom Mr. G. Duchossois Tel: +44 1382 344557 European Space Agency Fax: +44 1382 345415 8-10, rue Mario Nikis Email: [email protected] 75738 Paris Cedex 15, France Tel: +33 1 5369 7285 VICE-CHAIRMAN Fax: +33 1 5369 7674 Prof. Dr. Eberhard Parlow Email: [email protected] MCR Laboratory University of Basel COMMISSION OF EUROPEAN Spalenring 145 COMMUNITIES CH-4055 Basel, Switzerland Dr. J. Mégier Tel: +41 61 2726480 Space Applications Institute Fax: +41 61 2726923 Joint Research Centre of the EC Email: [email protected] I-21020 Ispra (VA), Italy Tel: +39 332 785 579 SECRETARY-GENERAL Fax: +39 332 789 469 Dr. Lucien Wald Email : [email protected] Groupe Télédétection et Modélisation Ecole des Mines de Paris COUNCIL OF EUROPE B.P. 207 Mr. J. P. Massué F-06904 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France EUR-OPA Major Hazards Agreement Tel: +33 4 93 95 7449 B.P. 431 R-6 Fax: +33 4 93 95 7535 67075 Strasbourg Cedex, France Email: [email protected] Tel: +33 3 88 41 26 15 Fax: +33 3 88 41 27 87 TREASURER Email: [email protected] Dr. Peter Winkler FÖMI Remote Sensing Centre Bosnyak tér 5 1149 Budapest, Hungary Tel: +36 1 363 6669 Fax: +36 1 252 8282 Email: [email protected]
EAST-WEST RELATIONS Dr.Tomas Benes Lesprojekt Forest Management Institute Nabrezni 1326 250 44 Brandys-nad-Labem, Czech Republic Tel: +420 202 800 192 Fax: +420 202 803 371 Email: [email protected]
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1 EDITORIAL Recently I have been involved in a pro- Now, let us see what we have in this ject dealing with Internet-based solu- December issue of the Newsletter. First tions for the distribution of Earth of all I would like to thank guest editor Observation data. Using an interactive Michael Schaepman who has produced approach that enables definition of the (with his co-authors) a report on the ‘region and time series of interest’, hid- Imaging Spectroscopy SIG workshop den pre-processing (basic data are raw that was held in Zürich just a few weeks data) and value adding (all processing ago. I think the Newsletter is to serve done by remote servers) in this project, the Special Interest Groups in their ac- the objective was to find some ways for tivities as much as possible. enlarging the market potential for EO Included with this issue you will find a data. From the technical point of view I CD-ROM "Window on the World" that think the project was a success; it is pos- has been produced by BNSC and RSS sible to deliver specific portions of in- (Great Britain) which was circulated to formation to the end user either by via all readers of the Sunday Times. Before the Internet or by direct communication putting this into your PC please read links. However, two of the problems the separate sheet of instructions that still stood out by the end of the pro- "Travel the World" and the review pro- ject should be mentioned. Today’s data vided by Nick Kew on page 23. and pricing policies do not have ‘rules’ Wim Bakker provides us with some for EO data covering small areas, and, new 'observations' on what is happen- how to price ‘value-adding’? The other ing in the space related EO activities; problem is related to the ‘quality’ of the reading his contribution four times a information retrieved - what informa- year will keep you up-to-date on what tion is given on the accuracy and by you should know (plus some extras). what organisation ? When, for example, some Internet-derived land cover map I want to remind you that EARSeL now might be used for planning purposes of has its own web entry (www-ear- my province I would be the first one to sel.cma.fr), including the member's di- object against using such a map which rectory, possibilities for tendering and could be quite inaccurate. These days, SIG related sites. There has been discus- any person that can push buttons can sion with some members on the way the produce 'information'. Newsletter is published on the web site. When it comes to enlarging the market At this moment we only publish the for applications of EO data, technology Table of Contents and the chapter on is the first thing that can be solved by Association News. We think that if peo- hard labour. Data policies and accepted ple and organisations are interested standards and/or procedures for qual- they should at least pay the subscrip- ity definition of (value-added) products tion rate for the Newsletter (better still take more. Some of us see a correspon- to become a member of course). I would dence between selling cans of soup and be interested in hearing strong opinions EO data to anonymous customers. In in favour or against this policy - please this marketing context during one dis- react to my address and we will come cussion one of my colleagues said back to this issue in the March 1999 “under those conditions this person will EARSeL Newsletter. become a real potential customer”. From that remark I concluded that there Just a few weeks to go before the holi- is a long way to go before we are facing days. On behalf the EARSeL Bureau I a market of cash paying customers. In would like to wish everybody a Merry fact, because of the complexity of inter- Christmas and a Happy New Year ! preting EO data it is my opinion that the largest share of value-added prod- The editor ucts can only be generated in close com- munication with specific customers.
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2 NEWS FROM THE ASSOCIATION AND ITS MEMBERS
2.1 ECO BP'98 and EARSeL Among topics discussed were arrange- Bureau meeting ments for the meeting on "Space Tech- niques for Natural Disaster Monitoring The organisers of the ISPRS Commis- and Management", to be held 6-8 April sion VII mid-term Conference EOC 2000. Discussions are under way that BP'98 held from 1-4 September 1998, the organisation Perspective 2100 invited EARSeL to organise a session to should look after the practical organisa- present some of the work being carried tion with EARSeL/UNESCO being out by our Special Interest Groups. The responsible for the scientific content. session was well attended and much appreciated according to the reports we The dates of the EARSeL General have received. After an introduction Assembly and Symposium were decid- describing the aims and activities of the ed. These are Monday 22nd May - Association, given by our Chairman, Wednesday 24th May with Bureau and Robin Vaughan, the following presenta- Council meetings on 21st May and the tions were made : General Assembly on 23rd. The general theme of the symposium is still to be • A European proposal for terms of ref- considered, but it would reflect erence in data fusion given by Lucien progress made in East/West co-opera- Wald, our Secretary General tion since the Symposium held in Graz, • Cartographic relief representations Austria in 1991. A workshop is planned with DEM filtering techniques given by for the 25th May, which is still being ne- Manfred Buchroithner, our former Vice- gotiated. Chairman • The design of a regional approach to A report on ECO BP'98 is included in chapter 6. combat disasters employing the logical The next EARSeL Bureau and Council framework methodology given by Anna meetings will take place on 14/15 Spiteria, our representative in Malta, and January in Paris. • Remote Sensing tools for forest fires prevention and assessment given by Emilio Chuvieco, convener of our For- 2.2 Prof. Dr. Ing. Dr. h.c. mult. est Fires SIG Gottfried Konecny has retired
The Bureau took advantage of the fact The EARSeL Honorary Vice-President that they were all present in Budapest and former EARSeL Chairman, Prof. Dr. on this occasion to hold a short Bureau Gottfried Konecny retired this year meeting, which in fact took place in the from his position as professor and di- office of Bela Bartok at the Hungarian rector of the Institute of Photo-gramme- Academy of Sciences. try at the University Hannover. Gottfried Konecny is also Honorary Member of ISPRS.
On September 14 his retirement was cel- ebrated with a small symposium joined by about 200 participants from all over the world. Who ever has met Gottfried - and who has not? - knows that he is an enthusiast in photogrammetry and re- mote sensing, a visionary brain in the development of new techniques and methods and a friend of international and interdisciplinary co-operation. He Bureau at work in Budapest. probably is one of the few scientists
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who has visited more than 120 coun- 2.3 THE EARSEL/SEE SIG ON tries throughout the world sharing his DATA FUSION scientific knowledge and representing our discipline in national and interna- Sophia Antipolis, January 30, 1998 tional committees and societies at the highest level of science and technology. The Special Interest Group "data fusion" The forum of the retirement celebration has been created within EARSeL and was impressive and mirrored the SEE to better understand data fusion for world-wide activities of Gottfried a better exploitation of the synergy Konecny. After a series of welcome ad- between all instruments observing and dresses from various international asso- measuring our environment. It met on ciations the symposium went on with January 30, 1998, in the wake of the 2nd invited speeches given by some of those Conference "Fusion of Earth Data", in people who shared a good part of their Sophia Antipolis, and gathered about life with Gottfried. EARSeL was repre- forty persons. Former EARSeL chairman Gottfried Konecny sented by its Treasurer Peter Winkler and its Vice-Chairman Eberhard Parlow As decided in the last meeting, the de- who expressed the warmest greetings of bate focused on the formalisation of the the EARSeL community in a short hon- data fusion in remote sensing which is ouring address. sorely needed and would shape the do- main. The main outcomes of the debate The celebration ended with a marvel- were on definitions and terms of refer- lous party in Gottfried's institute and no ence. The following definitions were one had to suffer from a lack of food or agreed upon: beer. Gottfried answered the many ad- dresses and talks given by thanking all Data fusion: data fusion is a formal those who had crossed his scientific and framework in which are expressed private life. He ended his talk with a means and tools for the alliance of data quotation received from his good originating from different sources. It friend, Prof. H.K. Meier, some days ago: aims at obtaining information of greater "There is a life after Photogrammetry! quality; the exact definition of ‘greater From the outside it may have appeared quality’ will depend upon the applica- to you like a black hole. And in fact al- tion. Here quality has not a very specif- most no ray of light is emitted from a ic meaning. It is a generic word denot- pensioner’s life to the active one. But in- ing that the resulting information is side it is incredibly bright and busy. A more satisfactory for the "customer" wealth of so far reflected interests and when performing the fusion process possibilities are here for the taking. You than without it. For example, a better will experience it: a human being is quality may be an increase in accuracy, more than the square minimum of his or in the production of a more relevant residual errors!" information. In this definition, spectral channels of a same sensor are to be con- EARSeL wishes Gottfried Konecny all sidered as different sources, as well as the best for this new step in a scientist’s images taken at different instants. life - but we would very much appre- ciate if Gottfried would keep contribut- It then has been suggested to use the ing to future EARSeL activities and help terms merging, combination in a much the Bureau with his advice on how to broader sense than fusion, with combi- navigate EARSeL through maybe rough nation being even broader than merg- waters in the future. ing. These two terms define any process that implies a mathematical operation Dear Gottfried - many warm thanks performed on at least two sets of infor- from all EARSeL-members for your im- mation. These definitions are very loose portant contributions to our association. intentionally and offer space for various interpretations. Merging or combina- Prof. Dr. E. Parlow, Vice-Chairman tion are not defined with an opposition
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to fusion. They are simply more gener- al, also because we often need such terms to describe processes and meth- ods in a general way, without entering details. Integration may play a similar role though it implicitly refers more to concatenation (i.e. increasing the state vector) than to the extraction of relevant information.
Other definitions were accepted, such as attributes, features, rules, decisions, etc., which actually follow international standards and terms of reference (infor- mation theory, ISO/DIS 12651).
Prior to closing the meeting, it was re- called • the venue of the next meeting of the SIG in Valladolid (Spain), June 3-4, 1999, a joint meeting with several work- ing groups of ISPRS, in the wake of the 19th EARSeL Symposium • the holding of the 3rd International Conference on 'Fusion of Earth Data', in Ecole des Mines de Paris, Sophia Anti- polis, January 26-28, 2000. The meeting of the SIG will take place the day after, Friday 29th, at the same place.
More information on the Data Fusion Web server: http://www-datafusion.cma.fr
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3 1st EARSEL WORKSHOP ON IMAGING SPECTROSCOPY
Michael Schaepman1, Daniel Schläpfer1, Freek van der Meer2, Andreas Müller3, and Klaus Itten1
3.1 Introduction
This report summarises the 1st EARSeL Workshop on Imaging Spectroscopy that was held at the Remote Sensing Laboratories (RSL) at the University of Zürich, Switzerland, from 6-8 October, 1998. The workshop was organised by the EARSeL Special Interest Group on Imaging Spectroscopy (SIG-IS), which is chaired by Andreas Müller. The work- shop was hosted by RSL and chaired by Michael Rast (ESA) and Dieter Oertel (DLR) Klaus Itten with co-chairmen Michael seem to be pleased with the starting session of the Schaepman and Daniel Schläpfer. workshop. The workshop focused on the develop- ment and application of imaging spec- shop ended up with a total of 140 par- troscopy techniques to solve practical ticipants from 5 continents and 75 con- problems of environmental monitoring. tributions (31 posters in 2 sessions The main aspects, such as hyperspectral (43%) and 40 oral presentations in 9 ses- data acquisition including fundamental sions (57%); 71 presentations in total (or principles, advanced techniques, data 95% of all scheduled events)). interpretation and operational use of imaging spectrometers were covered. A major focus was to present the state-of- 3.2 Summary of the Workshop the-art and progress made in this Programme remote sensing science, and to exchange information on large national and inter- Welcome Session national projects, existing equipment The workshop was opened by its chair- and methods, and requirements for man, Klaus Itten, who welcomed the future scientific and technical develop- participants and then summarised the ment. evolution of imaging spectroscopy in The workshop team consisted of the Europe and especially at RSL, starting secretariat (Mme. Madeleine Godefroy, in the late 1980’s up to the present day. EARSeL), the workshop chairman The head of the Swiss delegation to ESA (Klaus Itten, RSL), the workshop co- Programme Board for Earth Observa- chairmen (Michael Schaepman, Daniel tion (PB-EO), Jean-Pierre Ruder then Schläpfer, both RSL), and the scientific urged the workshop participants to pro- committee (Eberhard Parlow, Univer- vide information for environmental and sity of Basel; Klaus Itten, RSL; Franz other current local and global problems. Lanzl, DLR; Andreas Müller, DLR; The forecasting ability of remote sens- Allan Nielsen, TU of Denmark)). The ing data is one of the best possibilities local RSL team supporting the work- to help survive in a fast changing 1 Remote Sensing Laboratories, University of Zürich, Switzer- shop included Peter Keller (exhibition world. He hopes to see people coming land and instruments), and Mathias out of their research laboratories and 2 ITC, Enschede, The Nether- lands Kneubühler (social events). telling the public as well as the politi- 3 Institute for Optoelectronics, Initially, the workshop was planned for cians about their findings in order to DLR, Oberpfaffenhofen, Ger- many 60 to 80 participants. Finally the work- create more awareness. Research and its
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related funding depends on the good- Michael Rast (ESA/ESTEC) focused his will of society through politicians. Only presentation on ESA’s Earth Explorer by convincing them of the value of Land Surface Processes and Interactions research can funding for this be main- Mission paying particular attention to tained. Furthermore, Ruder stated that PRISM: the Processes Research by an research should put emphasis on fore- Imaging Space Mission. Quoting the casting. His slogan for this is “forecast- IGBP 1992 report, Rast addressed the ing is surviving”. extrapolation of local observations on The co-ordinator of the EARSeL Special biophysical processes and land-surface Interest Group on Imaging Spectrosco- interactions to a global scale. Radiomet- py (SIG-IS) Andreas Müller then wel- ric parameters acquired at a local scale comed all attendees by giving a short such as BRDF, temperature, and emis- overview of EARSeL activities and the sivity should be used to derive model aims of the SIG-IS. parameters such as APAR, LPAR etc. needed as input to models such as the Invited Papers SVAT approach. These models need to Three invited papers by Alexander provide in turn the input to global Goetz, Karl Staenz and Michael Rast change models driving the Earth eco- concluded the morning session of the systems. The issue for the coming years first day. The first presentation was according to Rast is to derive model given by Thomas Chrien in place of parameters for global circulation mod- Alexander Goetz on “Recent imaging els, thus overcoming the scale problems spectroscopy activities at the Jet Propul- in between the local observation typi- sion Laboratory (JPL)”. Thomas report- cally made at 10 metre resolution and ed on the status of AVIRIS showing that the general circulation models that typ- the instrument had gone through a ically operate at 50 km resolution. remarkable transition of improvements Rast’s message is “think local, act glo- now leading to a SNR of the order of bal!”. 1000:1 for a 50% reflecting target at 23.5 degrees solar zenith. He also stressed Oral Sessions five requirements for high quality imag- Session 1 - Sensor systems ing spectroscopy data: high SNR, stabil- This session, chaired by Franz Lanzl ity, uniformity, calibration, and reflec- (DLR), contained presentations on new tance inversion. Also the data process- technologies, DAIS 7915, ROSIS and ing facility and processing needs have HyMAP. Chrien continued on AVIRIS increased enormously. During peak and its improvement in performance days, 180 scenes of nearly 1 gigabyte from its early operation in the late each are processed. Chrien announced 1980’s. New developments are the low that AVIRIS would be flown on a low altitude flights, which are planned for altitude aircraft, such as the NOAA this flight season. He also reported on Twin Otter to reduce costs and strive significant reduction of keystone and towards more operational use. smile effects using a laboratory proto- Karl Staenz (CCRS) discussed imaging type with an Offner relay. spectroscopy in Canada starting with The DAIS 7915, as reported by Andreas the PMI/FLI instrument, SFSI and Müller, has been operated by DLR for a CASI. He showed operational and com- period of three years within the frame- mercial applications of imaging spec- work of the EU TMR programme. troscopy in the fields of mineral pros- Through the large scale facility project, pecting as well as approaches to preci- European users have been able to work sion farming with hyperspectral data. on imaging spectroscopy data with the According to Staenz, further commer- DAIS resulting in a total of 115 flights in cialisation is needed providing an end- 12 European countries. Significant mod- to-end solution. Future work should be ifications were made to the original sen- conducted within the framework of sor configuration as delivered by GER. international collaboration leading to Although the LSF project is planned to improved access to data for users. end in 1999, several flights with the
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DAIS are planned for the 1999 flight NASA Goddard Space Flight Center season mainly in France and Spain (the (Fran Stetina) in collaboration with Sci- Barrax test site) as preparatory investi- ence & Technology International. gations for PRISM. An initiative on the commercialisation As opposed to this, ROSIS, another of remote sensing called SmartX, instrument maintained by DLR, report- (Systematic Market Development for ed Peter Gege, is likely to be operated in Remote Sensing Techniques), presents a 1999 for the scientific preparation of joint effort of Dornier Satellitensysteme MERIS. ROSIS III, reflecting the present (Jochen Harms), DLR, Integrated Spec- design status of this instrument has tronics and HyVista. Five leading Ger- undergone substantial changes and man remote sensing value added com- enhancements, including some detector panies and six well-known research binning. institutes in Germany and Switzerland The most remarkable instrument pre- are combining their expertise to devel- sented by Terry Cocks was the Austra- op more than 30 high level information lian HyMAP. HyMAP, developed by products within agriculture, forestry, Integrated Spectronics, is a high spec- environment and planning. In total, tral resolution 128 band imaging spec- three hyperspectral campaigns have trometer (0.4-2.5 micrometer) with 5 m been and will be carried out in 1998- pixels from 2500 m flight altitude, and 1999 using HyMAP, the HRSC camera very good radiometric resolution. The and an E-SAR system. spectral resolution in the order of 15 - 20 nm allows to serve a suite of applica- Session 3 - Data calibration and processing tions and particularly the very high Data calibration and data processing SNR (>2000:1!) permits to gather high was the theme of this session chaired by quality spectra to be recorded. Dieter Oertel with five contributions. A new approach for the calibration of Session 2 - Future sensors the thermal channels of the DAIS 7915 This session chaired by Karl Staenz using a simplified sensor model was communicated results on the APEX presented by Peter Strobl. Significant experiment, a Fourier transform spec- improvements on calibration were trometer, a new hyperspectral imager achieved by in-flight data processing IFRI and on the SmartSpectral initiative. based on laboratory coefficients, black- The Airborne PRISM Experiment body readings and temperature meas- (APEX), presented by Michael Schaep- urements. The definition of an across- man, strives to develop an airborne track function for the correction of the pushbroom imaging spectrometer sim- changing background influence during ulating PRISM to contribute to the cali- the scan process helped to improve reli- bration, validation and application ability in the thermal wavelength range. development of PRISM. This Swiss-Bel- Similar problems were solved for the gian instrument is now entering phase calibration of the CASI sensor (Ivo Kel- B: a nine months preparatory phase pre- ler), where the ‘frame shift smear’ effect ceding the actual design phase which is on the pushbroom detector could be estimated to last 24 months. corrected successfully. Furthermore it The Imaging Spatial Heterodyne Spec- was proven that the residual errors trometer (ISHS), presented by Barry encountered originate from the readout Smith, is a pushbroom Fourier trans- electronics, rather than from the CCD form ultraspectral imager with no mov- array inhomogeneities. ing parts developed at Los Alamos As for the data processing Daniel National Laboratory. This instrument is Schläpfer presented an innovative con- designed for the detection of gaseous cept for the upcoming APEX processing effluents through the deconvolution of and archiving facility. It includes a thermal IR molecular spectra. The Inte- modular design and is based on a cen- grated Fluorescence and Reflectance tral database, while interactions will be Imager (IFRI) is developed for remote done directly over the WWW. sensing in the shortwave infrared at Michael Lazar then evaluated various
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atmospheric correction methods over Many researchers are currently working lakes: empirical line correction proved with data from the DAIS instrument. A to be less reliable compared to radiative radiative canopy transfer model inver- transfer models. sion using DAIS data acquired under Finally, brand new results achieved by the Alphilles/ReSeDA experiment was HRSC-A flights in combination with presented by Fréderic Baret using 10 HYMAP data were presented by Frank variables and 20 spectral bands Lehmann. This research showed the between 450-2300 nm. potential for better classification of The following presentation (Mathias hyperspectral data with the aid of visu- Kneubühler) focused on endmember ally interpretable high spatial resolution selection procedures for partial spectral data. Also the use of digital terrain unmixing indicating that in situ reflec- models clearly demonstrated their tance measurements and SVAT mod- potential as a clarification tool. elled endmember spectra are more promising than image derived end- Session 4 - Atmospheric and limnologic ap- members in offering the possibility of plications retrieving plant canopy biochemistry Session 4, chaired by Daniel Schläpfer, parameters. dealt with atmospheric and limnologic Assessment of evapotranspiration pat- applications (each represented by two terns through a SVAT-model named papers). PROMET (Process Oriented Multiscale The plans for the delivery of Aerosol EvapoTranspiration) using DAIS data products by the SCIAMACHY sensor was presented (Heike Bach) showing on ENVISAT were presented by Thom- remarkable changes not only in spatial as König. The instrument evolved from distribution but also in quantitative the GOME experiment and will support evapotranspiration rates. The conclu- the detection of various aerosol compo- sion derived was that accurate vegeta- nents. tion databases and the application of Rolf Richter described the retrieval of imaging spectrometry are indispensable columnar water vapour from MOS-B for microscale SVAT modeling. Imagery in the following talk. The The last presentation in the session was APDA technique provided satisfying given by Anatoly Gitelson and focused results in comparison with in situ meas- on the quantitative estimation of plant urements. states investigating the basic spectral Don Pierson compared a variety of in properties of leaves to estimate pigment situ spectroradiometric measurements contents. His final question on how to chemical analysis and model simula- many spectral channels are necessary tions for inland water quality monitor- for his research remains unanswered. ing. He found good agreements with suspended matter, while the signal of Session 6 - Land cover monitoring chlorophyll is partly covered by other Fréderic Baret chaired the land cover effects. monitoring session. The two contribu- A Dutch project to increase the end-use tions focused on grasslands and euca- of spectral water monitoring techniques lypt trees. was presented by Steef Peters. Data Anne Jacobsen presented an approach from MOS and MERIS will be used for monitoring semi-natural grasslands monitoring purposes and the systemat- using convex geometry and partial ic production of end products on unmixing. The method used proved the request. possibility of monitoring encroachment at individual shrub level. Session 5 - Vegetation signal analyses The talk given by Brian Turner present- The vegetation signal analyses session ed a method to characterise eucalypt chaired by Joachim Hill concentrated on forests. Three approaches were dis- the use of imaging spectroscopy to cussed including field spectro-radio- derive parameters that drive radiative metric measurements, CASI data, and canopy transfer models. spectral analyses of dried leaves to
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identify toxic phenols. The question on Götz Reinhäckel obtained good correla- whether the endmember signature of tions for the mineralogy versus the field the Koala bear should be introduced measurements as well as for the mine- remained open. ralogy versus the DAIS spectra. The chair of the SIG-IS and the co-chairmen Session 7 - Geological applications would like to mention the outstanding This session chaired by Andreas Müller quality of this presentation. focused on geological applications An application of mineral mapping of mainly using DAIS data. DAIS data using spectral angle mapping The first presentation (Lucca Merucci) and classification in the Maktesh Ramon centred on a combined campaign test site revealed undiscovered minera- acquiring DAIS and MIVIS data over logical composition of limestones. Pho- Mt. Etna. Large discrepancies were tointerpretation for geological mapping found in temperatures derived from of hyperspectral data and processed DAIS (realistic values ranging to 70 data was promoted by Asun Riaza. degrees in the crater) and MIVIS (values The final application of DAIS data for of over 200 degrees in the crater and geological mapping presented by Char- large areas of the summit over 150 ly Kaufmann was centred on the Greek degrees Celsius). Despite this, it was Island of Naxos where the researchers concluded that imaging spectrometers attempted with success to map iso- are useful in monitoring temperature grades (chlorite, biotite, muscovite) and temperature changes as well as SO2 using spectral unmixing in combination emission over active volcanoes. with field spectral measurements. The use of DAIS for mineral mapping in the La Peyne area was subsequently Session 8 - Soil composition monitoring presented by Harald van der Werff. This session was chaired by Charly Spectral unmixing was used to con- Kaufmann and centred on soil applica- strain minerals and further highlight tions. basalts and limestones using both An application of AVIRIS to mapping weathered and fresh field spectra. and identification of expansive clays An application of DAIS to environmen- was presented (Sabine Chabrillat). A tal mapping of lignite dumps using model for inversion of engineering thermal infrared spectroscopy succeed- swell tests and spectral measurements ed in extrapolating narrow laboratory to predict swelling potential from spec- spectral measurements modelled with tral characteristics was successfully laboratory XRD analyses of clay and sil- tested on AVIRIS data. ica to the coarse DAIS spectral channels. A completely different application fol- lowed (Joachim Hill) who concentrated on the mapping of soil crusts in Nizza- na (Israel) using false colour aerial pho- tographs. Stratified unmixing was applied to dune and inter-dune areas leading to accurate mapping of the var- ious components of the dune system including the soil crusts. The work will be extended to the scale of DAIS.
An application of MIVIS to the mapping of oil polluted soils due to an outburst of an AGIP rig in northern Italy concluded the session (Stefano Pignatti).
Session 9 - Environmental applications This last session of the conference chaired by Michael Schaepman was Joachim Hill presenting his paper in the workshop auditorium. devoted to environmental applications.
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The first presentation was a more phil- osophical one where the potential use of imaging spectroscopy to aid in the iden- tification of stressed vegetation using red edge modelling algorithms was dis- cussed. After apologies for being the sole UK representative at the workshop, Andrew Folkard talked about the evo- lution of the analysis of land fill sites from red-edge analysis to other spectral features of stress. Several examples of applications of MIVIS to environmental problems were presented (Stefano Pignatti) including the mapping of buried cities in archae- Peter Keller (RSL) explaining his latest results to his Dutch colleagues (Hans van der Woerd, Steef ology, mapping of different types of Peters) during the poster session. pavements in cities and mapping of asbestos rooftops. The last presentation (Helen Preissler) Discussion meeting and closing session focused on a spectral database of filed The discussion meeting focused on the spectroradiometric measurements to possibility of flight campaigns in 1999 support the use of imaging spectrosco- and onward. Since the DAIS LSF project py data for land degradation studies in is ending next year with a final work- the Mediterranean environment (MED- shop in the Spring, these EC opportu- SPEC). Currently, some 200 spectral nities are unavailable beyond 1999. field measurements of different sites are However, possibilities of the DAIS fly- stored in this database that can be quer- ing in preparation of PRISM over the ied using logical operators. Barrax test site in Spain in June next year are investigated. Other flights with Poster Sessions DAIS are scheduled over environmental The poster sessions were well attended sites in Eastern Europe. It is possible to despite a certain lack of time to have in put forward flight requests to DLR depth discussions with more than a few given that funding is available to cover authors during the extended coffee the expenses (approx. DM 10.000 per break. The poster sessions included var- day for plus/minus 4 flight hours, DM ious contributions on sensor calibration, 3.000 for radiance calibrated data per atmospheric correction methodologies, flight line and DM 10.000 for geocoded limnologic applications and vegetation reflectance data per flight line (please monitoring, as well as a variety of other contact Andreas Müller for exact pric- applications. The calibration of the ing, prices are subject to change)). With- DAIS sensor was widely discussed and in the scope of the SmartSpectral initia- evaluated over test sites in Spain. The tive another combined flight of HRSC Nordic countries were present with and HyMAP is planned for 1999. Those studies on the monitoring of lakes using interested in existing processed HRSC- the CASI sensor (Sweden) and new HyMAP data with available field meas- information about the Finnish imaging urements can consult the consortium. spectrometer named AISA. Similar These data are freely available given studies were carried out over Alpine that results are made available to this lakes. Vegetation studies were shown group. For ROSIS no flight campaign is for rangeland characterisation as well scheduled, however it is intended to fly as for specific test areas in a controlled the instrument in summer 1999 for sim- environment. One poster proved an ilar rates as for the DAIS. Commercial excellent agreement of sun photometer flights with CASI can be ordered measurements and radiosonde data of through the Institute of Space Sciences atmospheric water vapour. of the University of Berlin. Similarly
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researchers may approach CNR to order given to politicians as well as to ‘people MIVIS data. Michael Rast commented on the street’. Users of the results have on ESA’s philosophy which is airborne to be found and contacted and informa- campaigns to facilitate the spaceborne tion to ESA and politicians should be programme. Again DAISEX 98 was spread. A strong need for the LSPIM mentioned which will be extended with mission was expressed and is visible by flights in 1999 over the same test sites. the fast growing number of users and Interested researchers can join in. Rast the proven possibilities of this new argued that the various instruments technique. An official resolution was should concentrate on the same sites to drafted in the name of the workshop allow instrument calibration and vali- participants to ESA. It contains an dation studies facilitating the space- urgent call for support to imaging spec- borne programmes. Baret commented troscopy projects in Europe. The resolu- on the French situation where no hyper- tion is signed by the workshop chair- spectral instruments are currently avail- man, the co-chairman, and the chair of able although several companies have the EARSeL SIG-IS and reads as fol- shown interest. Canada’s programme lows: focuses on moss and lichen detection (i) At the Zurich workshop of the and the relation to the underlying geol- EARSeL Special Interest Group Imaging ogy for mineral prospecting. Other Spectroscopy 6-8 October 1998, which applications that will be investigated was attended by 140 people, the strong are precision farming and environmen- need for a LSPIM (PRISM) was empha- tal problems. Furthermore it should be sised, based on the experience of the par- noted that within the Netherlands, ticipants and the deliberations and dis- Rijkswaterstaat is currently in the pro- cussions during the conference. cess of operating an EPS-A for water (ii) The SIG-IS confirms its willingness quality and coastal zone management to contribute to the planning and execu- applications. tion of future European flight campaigns The last part of the discussion led by and experiments in support of the Prof. Lanzl was directed toward pos- PRISM mission. sibilities within the EU Fifth Frame- work programme. 3.3 Events In the final roundup session, Klaus Itten insisted that each group of researchers Exhibitors should act as a local Centre of Excel- The meeting had a small exhibition lence. Pragmatic results and simple with representatives of GER Corp. (Tom answers on simple questions should be Corl and Dennis Witz), ASD Inc. (David Beal) and CreaSo GmbH (representing the European distributor of IDL and ENVI, Fred Kruse, Jürgen Schwarz). During the workshop CreaSo offered two courses on IDL and ENVI in the facilities of RSL.
The major part of the exhibition was the display of equipment for field spectros- copy measurement. RSL displayed their measurement equipment (e.g. four spectroradiometers (3 GER, 1 ASD), one sunphotometer (Univ. of Arizona), and their field goniometer system (FIGOS)). This part as well as the presentation of RSL activities in Remote Sensing and Some of those responsible for the EARSeL workshop (from left: Klaus Itten (chair), Allan Nielsen (scientific committee), from right: Michael Schaepman (co-chair), the sale of publications was organised and Franz Lanzl (scientific committee)). by Peter Keller.
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Tom Corl (GER Corp.) explaining the goniometer system of RSL at the exhibition to Freek van der Meer and Steven de Jong.
Ice Breaker The ice breaker reception on the first day of the workshop was sponsored by a local company called Netcetera AG. Their involvement with the European Space Agency (ESA) and their work for the electronic submission of the Envisat and ERS-2 Announcements of Opportu- nities led to their decision to sponsor this event. The sponsoring of this event The instrument manufacturers seem to be fully is greatly acknowledged! satisfied with the outcome of the workshop (from left: Rainer Bärs (Specim), Dennis Witz (GER), Workshop Dinner and Lillo de Gasparis (Hyvista)). The workshop dinner was organised by Mathias Kneubühler and took place on the famous Uetliberg Mountain over- looking Zürich. A bus took the 91 par- ticipants across the city to the Uetliberg train, which brought them close to the hilltop. After a short 5 minute walk (the rain was not planned by the organiser) the hilltop restaurant was reached. The dinner included a typical Swiss meal (- sliced veal in cream sauce with hash browns (Swiss German: Züri- Hilltop dinner table (from left: Tom Chrien Gschnätzelts mit Röschti)) and a wel- (NASA), Tilman Bucher (DLR), Andrea come note by Klaus Itten. At 23:28 the Haushold (DLR), Daniel Schläpfer (Co-chair- man), Barry Smith (LANL), Mary Kappus satisfied participants were able to catch (NRL), Sigrid Roessner (GFZ), and Craig the last train back to town. Trotter (Landcare Research)).
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3.4 Conclusions and Outlook easily. In addition the authors want to acknowledge the support of the local The workshop was judged a complete PhD and MSc students of RSL. They success. Imaging spectroscopy seems to have been supporting all the activities have evolved to a promising and inter- with many after-hours over the course esting science also in Europe. It was the of the organisation: Anko Börner, Nina intention of the organisers to offer a Dickerhof, Sandra Eckert, Rahel Fis- podium to all researchers interested in cher, Peter Keller, Mathias Kneubühler, imaging spectroscopy. Many excellent Gabi Noser, Gaby Strub, and Francesco presentations were held during the Wyss. course of the workshop and the organ- isers want to thank the participants for The Proceedings of the Workshop are their adherence to the schedule. Based now being prepared and it is hoped to on the need of future workshops, four publish by the end of the year if authors institutions (Andrew Skidmore, ITC; provide their papers promptly. Partici- Franz Lanzl, DLR; Joachim Hill, Univer- pants will receive their copy and others sity of Trier, and Eyal Ben Dor, Univer- may be ordered through the EARSeL sity of Tel Aviv) expressed their willing- Secretariat (Fax: +33.1.45 56 73 61; ness to consider to organise the 2nd Email: [email protected]. EARSeL Workshop on Imaging Spec- troscopy within the next two years. We Michael Schaepman is now compiling a are looking forward to supporting EAR- list of specifications of past, present and SeL and these organisers of the 2nd future airborne imaging spectrometers. workshop, hoping to be able to intro- He is interested in such information as duce a continuation of this event. SNR, smile, keystone, NEdL, NEdR, quantization rate, no. of bands, spectral sampling interval, spectral sampling 3.5 Acknowledgements width, calibration uncertainty, etc. If you could assist him in sending point- The authors want to acknowledge the ers to key persons, specifications, and support of EARSeL in general and of links on the web, he would be very Madeleine Godefroy in particular. grateful. These will then be published. Without her help and support, the Michael may be contacted at : event would not have taken place so [email protected]
3.6 Internet Adresses
EARSeL http://www-earsel.cma.fr SIG-IS send mail to: [email protected], subject: help, body text: help Workshop programme http://www.geo.unizh.ch/~schaep/earsel/earsel.html and related information RSL http://www.geo.unizh.ch/rsl FIGOS http://www.geo.unizh.ch/rsl/projects/figos.html Sunphotometer http://www.geo.unizh.ch/~dschlapf/sunphoto.html Radiometer http://www.geo.unizh.ch/rsl/projects/ger3700.html Netcetera AG http://www.netcetera.ch (see: http://www.esa-ao.org) GER Corp. [email protected] ASD Inc. http://www.asdi.com CreaSo GmbH http://www.creaso.com
Michael Schaepman [email protected], http://www.geo.unizh.ch/~schaep Daniel Schläpfer [email protected], http://www.geo.unizh.ch/~dschlapf Freek van der Meer [email protected], http://www.itc.nl/~vdmeer/ Klaus Itten [email protected], http://www.geo.unizh.ch/~itten Andreas Müller [email protected], http://www.dlr.de/dais/
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4 NEWS FROM THE EC, ESA AND THE CEO
4.1 NEWS UPDATE FROM THE using EO information. In order to make CEO PROGRAMME searching easier, each case study is in- dexed in three different ways; by eco- INFEO ready soon for testing nomic sector, by geographic area and by Acceptance testing of the INFEO system thematic subject. In particular, indexing will be taking place during November by 24 economic sectors, such as the fish- 1998. Once successfully tested, it then ing industry, insurance industry, public will go through an operational testing operational services and intergovern- phase lasting a couple of weeks. It is mental bodies, make it easier for a po- foreseen that INFEO will be made pub- tential customer to find examples rele- licly available at the end of 1998 or be- vant to his or her profession. ginning of 1999. This ‘Information from Space’ CD-ROM INFEO will replace the CEO’s current is reviewed elsewhere in this newslet- Earth observation information ex- ter. If you would like to receive a copy change system, the EWSE (http: of this CD-ROM, please contact the //ewse.ceo.org). In addition to all func- CEO Helpdesk via e-mail: tionality currently offered by the EWSE, [email protected], or fax: +39 0332 785 INFEO will for the first time allow on- 461. line searching of major data collections. Customer segment reports now available CEO’s ‘Information from Space’ CD- The Shipping industry, Water compa- ROM now available nies, Agribusiness and Land navigation To further one of the key objectives of and digital mapping industry were the the CEO Programme, that of increasing customer sectors examined in the sec- the use of EO data and services, the ond round of CEO Programme’s cus- CEO has produced a collection of appli- tomer segments studies. cation examples on CD-ROM. By means of this ‘Information From Space’ The final reports and the information CD-ROM we hope to attract new cus- papers produced by these studies are tomers to the use of such information available for printing out or just for and thus have assumed little or no viewing from the CEO web site at knowledge of EO on the part of the tar- http://www.ceo.org/docs.html. get audience. A number of hard copies of the informa- tion papers are available directly from One hundred and sixty demonstration the CEO. If you are interested in receiv- case studies have been included which ing any of these, please contact show a range of diverse professional [email protected] or via fax +39 0332 areas that have already benefited from 785 461.
5 REMOTE SENSING DATA, PRODUCTS AND PROJECT
5.1 Observations Read about it in the section "Rocket fail- ures". NASA has severe problems of Wim Bakker, ITC, Enschede, getting their babies in the sky. Both The Netherlands Landsat 7 and EOS-AM1 suffer from considerable delays, not to mention the Problems, problems, problems. Again International Space Station. Every the space industry has been troubled by major deliverable of NASA projects a disturbing number of launch failures. scheduled for 1998 seem to have
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slipped. When questioned, NASA ap- difficult to model because of changing pears to be awfully vague about the velocity and attitude, and changing causes of these delays. Because of this weight of the rocket. Engineers had already someone suggested to change taken into account 56 different roll the name of NASA to "Never A Straight modes caused by the vibration of vari- Answer". Read about this, the demise of ous parts of the booster, but had ig- the JERS-1, and more in the section nored a 4 hertz vibration, because it was "Earth Observation". Meanwhile the not significant with the previous Delta 2 drones (remember these unmanned fly- model. The problem should be correct- ing objects?) set one record after an- ed with updated control system soft- other. NASA wants them to go "slower, ware, according to investigators. higher, longer". Now don't they sound Anyway, the incident is a serious blow like sexy machines to you? Even the to Boeing's rocket launch service, which communication business is now show- the aircraft giant hopes will compete ing interest in these oversized radio with the European Space Agency for controlled model airplanes. Read about commercial payloads. Europe's success, it in the section "Drones". Finally I take by the way, was confirmed by another off with some ramblings about Life and Ariane launch at August 25, that lofted the rest of the Universe in "Luck and the ST-1 communications satellite. And Time". Europe's pride received another boost with the success of the Ariane 5 flight Rocket failures 503 on October 21. Titan - In one of the costliest failures in Zenit - On September 10 once again the U.S. space history, a top-secret Pentagon troubled Zenit rocket received a severe Mercury spy satellite was destroyed blow. Twelve Globalstar satellites were when an Air Force rocket exploded destroyed together with a Zenit 2 boost- shortly after launch from Cape er. As a result of two faults, that ap- Canaveral Air Station. That was on peared in quick succession in the August 12, proving that even the rocket's computer system, the rocket's mighty Titan may fail. Those who storm control system sent an order to cut the the heavens may end up in hell, and engines about five minutes after launch. this Titan has certainly found its The resulting free fall back to Earth also Tartarus. A power glitch seems to have caused a plunge of Globalstar shares on confused its guidance system, the rock- the Stock Market. The fall is thought to et began to pitch over and had to be de- have set back the Globalstar global stroyed by range safety officers 42 sec- hand-held mobile satellite phone onds after lift-off. The exact cause of the system by at least half a year. An embar- power glitch remains as yet unknown. rassing incident during the launch was The suspect guidance system was that, at first instance, the launch was found in the Atlantic, but it is so badly thought to be a success, because the damaged because of the explosion, the Russian launch commentator was read- impact with the water, and the influ- ing from a prepared script instead of ac- ence of salt water that it remains highly tually delivering live information. This uncertain whether the real cause of the is not the first time this has happened. severe brain attack of the rocket can be When Landsat 6 was launched, for a determined. Meanwhile two other short time it was registered by the Titans are grounded until the cause of NORAD as being alive in space, while the problems is found. the satellite was actually submarine. Delta - On August 27 Boeing Co.'s new Delta 3 rocket exploded on its maiden Commercial Space Act approved flight, destroying the Galaxy 10 com- Here's the good news: the US Senate ap- munications satellite. A 4 hertz roll proved the Commercial Space Act, mode that was not taken account by en- meaning that a company now not only gineers is now identified as the cause of can launch space vehicles, but also is al- the problem. A rocket in flight exhibits lowed to return them to Earth! In the a complex dynamic behaviour which is previous situation you could launch,
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but never re-enter. It's almost like tell- User Systems, Inc., came up with a crea- ing a person "Sure you can smoke, just tive way to combine data from three ex- don't exhale!". The Space Act basically isting satellites that would match the means that the commercial space indus- original science specifications for the try can now develop reusable space sensor that died on ADEOS-I. The point transportation systems. The bill also is that a dinosaur-like EOS program mandates the use of commercial launch which gobbles up scarce resources, but services for most government payloads, produces limited results, is simply un- the purchase of space science data from acceptable. Of course, there have been private companies, a study on the com- successes as well, TRMM has exceeded mercialization of the International expectations, SeaStar/SeaWiFS pro- Space Station, and improved licensing vides valuable images of oceans and regulations for remote sensing satel- land, NOAA-15 was successfully lites. launched, but these successes do not take away any of the concerns about the Earth Observation way that NASA currently operates. NASA's Earth Science - The renaming Software partnership Research Systems of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth to have announced a marketing alliance Earth Science hasn't worked any won- with Fortner Software. Under this alli- ders. Yes, NASA's Earth Science team ance, Research Systems' flagship prod- has produced a lot of good science over uct, IDL (Interactive Data Language) the past year: the prediction of El Niño, will be integrated with Fortner's data a new prediction of La Niña, radar access and visualization environment, measurements of Antarctica, and cloud Noesys. The new software will, measurements from recent hurricanes. amongst others, provide tools for view- However, the scientific data for this re- ing, and analyzing NASA EOS data. search actually comes from satellites JERS-1 dies - On October 11, 1998 a built by other countries that are not part malfunction occurred in the Japanese of the large, multi-satellite Earth Earth Resources Satellite JERS-1 (Fuyo- Observing System effort, which stum- 1), which was launched on February 11, bles blindly forward, with ever-increas- 1992. After a problem with the gyros of ing costs and ever-receding deadlines. the attitude control system, telemetry Unfortunately, there's bad news across showed that the battery voltage had the range of Earth Science development dropped to low values. It is assumed programs. The AM-1 EOS platform did that the solar battery paddles had not make its June launch this year. stopped in a place where the sunlight Landsat did not launch in July. The could not reach them. When no signals EOSDIS Flight Operations Software, a from the satellite were received any- seemingly straightforward flight soft- more a command was sent to terminate ware package, did not get delivered. the operation of the satellite. The mis- The science processing software is still sion of JERS-1 was to last only two Missing In Action. The Lewis spacecraft years, but in the end it was possible to failed and re-entered the atmosphere. obtain observation data on the Earth And its companion, Clark, was finally from the satellite for approximately six- cancelled after running over budget. and-a-half years. Among its achieve- None of these events would suggest ments it has successfully detected anything resembling "faster, better, (using JERS-1 SAR interferometry) a cheaper." And, unfortunately, NASA's surface deformation of the Mount Iwate ocean winds sensor, NSCAT, died when and its vicinity that might be caused by Japan's ADEOS-I satellite went "adios" the earthquake at Shizukuishi area of in June of 1997. NASA is now strug- magnitude 6.1 on September 3 1998 and gling to get ready for launch a replace- the volcanic activity which has been ob- ment satellite known as SeaWinds/ served during last spring to summer. QuikSCAT. QuikSCAT is currently JERS-1 carried an L-band Synthetic scheduled for launch on November 24, Aperture Radar in HH polarization 1998. Meanwhile, a small company, with a resolution of about 18 by 18 me-
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tres, and the OPS optical sensor having North Korean technology. Meanwhile, 7 multi-spectral bands looking straight the United States and Japan accuse down and 1 band in 15.3 degrees look- North Korea of test-firing a Taepo Dong ing forward direction for stereo images 1 ballistic missile on August 31. The with a resolution of about 18 by 24 me- missile is supposed to have launched tres. The JERS-1 SAR instrument will be the Kwangmyungsung One (Bright Star succeeded by the PALSAR (Phased 1) satellite, but no matter how hard the Array L-band SAR) on board of the North-Koreans try to claim it is really ALOS Japanese Advanced Land out there, transmitting the melody of Observing Satellite to be launched in the immortal revolutionary hymns early 2003. The new SAR will have mul- praising the late President Kim Il Sung tiple resolutions 10 meter high-resolu- and his heir and son Kim Jong Il, this tion and 100 meter ScanSAR mode, fact remains unconfirmed by space or- multiple polarization HH and VV, and a ganizations around the globe. variable off-nadir pointing angle capa- Brazil's SCD-2 launched - Orbital bilities. Sciences Corporation announced that it TMSAT images - TMSAT the first Thai has launched Brazil's Satellite de Coleta MicroSATellite, launched together with de Dados-2 (SCD-2) at October 22. The Resurs-O1#4, constructed by Thai engi- launch represents the fifth Pegasus mis- neers with the help of engineers at sion in 1998 and the 24th mission over- Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. at the all for the innovative airborne space University of Surrey in the United launch system. This mission is the sec- Kingdom is delivering excellent images. ond Pegasus launch that Orbital has Take a peek at: http://www.ee.surrey. conducted for Brazil's national space ac.uk/EE/CSER/UOSAT/amateur/ agency. In February 1993, Orbital suc- tmsat/index. html for some examples. cessfully launched Brazil's SCD-1 satel- OrbView-4's - Imaging Spectrometer in lite, the predecessor spacecraft to SCD- danger. A unique arrangement in which 2, in the third mission in the rocket the U.S. Air Force is funding an en- program's history. The 110 kg SCD-2 hancement to a commercial imaging satellite was built in Brazil by the satellite is in jeopardy because of oppo- Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas sition within the U.S. intelligence com- Espacial (INPE) of the country's munity. Some intelligence officials want Ministry of Space and Technology. Like to restrict commercial sales of the 200 its predecessor satellite, SCD-2 is de- channel hyperspectral imagery to be signed to collect and relay environmen- collected by Orbital Imaging Corp.'s tal information gathered from ground OrbView-4 satellite. Orbital Imaging sensors located in Brazil and other (Orbimage) is adding that capability to countries of the tropical belt within the its satellite under a deal with the Air Amazon River basin. The data will be Force that would allow the company to used by scientists in studies of hydrolo- sell the resulting imagery commercially. gy of the basin, the chemistry of atmos- Restrictions on those sales could under- phere, oceanography and to improve mine the deal. weather and climate forecasting. A suc- Iran and North Korea - Israel believes cessful launch of SCD-2 was considered Iran is developing a spy satellite as part crucial for Brazil since the new satellite of its ballistic missile program. Officials is to take over the duties of the aging said they came to their conclusion after SCD-1. Orbital's Pegasus rocket is the analyzing Iranian television video shots world's leading launch system for the of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali deployment of small satellites into low- Khamenei visiting the missile develop- Earth orbit. Pegasus is carried aloft by ment plant. In the video shots, the ana- the company-owned L-1011 "Stargazer" lysts spotted a satellite launcher and aircraft to a launch point approximately what could be the basis for a spy satel- 12 km over open ocean areas, where it is lite that could cover the entire Middle released and then free-falls in a hori- East, including Israel. Iran recently test- zontal position for five seconds before ed a medium-range missile based on igniting its first stage rocket motor.
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Drones is designed to carry up to 150 kilograms Pathfinder and Centurion - On Aug. 6, of atmospheric sampling and other sci- 1998, AeroVironment's Pathfinder, a entific instruments in its forward fuse- solar-powered, remotely piloted air- lage payload compartment. craft, flew to a record altitude of 24.5 DarkStar - The DarkStar high-altitude km. The Pathfinder airplane is a tech- unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has suc- nology demonstration platform proving cessfully completed its second flight in the viability of solar-powered aircraft September. The DarkStar team will for high-altitude, long-endurance flight. schedule more test flights to continue Derivatives of this aircraft, incorporat- evaluation of the UAV's general flying ing energy storage for night-time flight, characteristics and basic system perfor- will be capable of continuous flight for mance, including the high-resolution weeks or months at a time at altitudes synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and elec- of more than 18 km. The successful tro-optical (EO) payloads. DarkStar is a record flight is one more milestone on high-altitude, low-observable endu- the way to commercial solar-powered rance UAV optimized for reconnais- aircraft acting as low-cost complements sance in highly defended areas. It will to satellites. For some communications operate within the current military force applications, Pathfinder and its descen- structure and with the existing com- dants have critical advantages over sat- mand, control, communications com- ellites in distance, location, recovery puter and intelligence equipment. It can and costs. Given these advantages and operate at a range of 900 km and stay on the success of the Pathfinder develop- station for eight hours at an altitude of ment, the commercial future for solar about 14 km. The air vehicle will carry airplanes looks very promising. NASA either the SAR or EO payload. has sponsored development of the Path- Proteus - On September 22 an oddly finder under the Environmental shaped aircraft took to the skies over Research Aircraft and Sensor Technolo- the Mojave Desert in a demonstration of gy (ERAST) program. This flight marks a new communications technology pro- the last for the Pathfinder as a testbed posed for major cities. The High for the ERAST program and the focus of Altitude Long Operation-Proteus air- development now moves to a similar craft is designed to circle for hours aircraft known as Centurion. With a some 15 km high, functioning much like wingspan of 63 meter, much longer a communications relay satellite does in than the current 37-meter Pathfinder, space. Proteus is a manned aircraft Centurion will be capable of reaching flown by two-man crews on eight-hour and sustaining an altitude of more than shifts, the aircraft would fly fixed pat- 30 km. Low-altitude flight testing of terns providing coverage to an area 120 Centurion will begin in October, and km in diameter. The communications high-altitude flights are planned to industry has shown interest but no for- begin in the summer of 1999. mal alliances have been made. The ad- Altus - The Altus 2 aircraft, a remotely vantage of such a system is that it can piloted science platform aircraft being be financed on a city-by-city basis. In developed at NASA's Dryden Flight my view a real breakthrough can be ex- Research Center, Edwards, Calif., has pected if the unmanned aerial vehicles begun development flights aimed at like the ones mentioned above become reaching and sustaining altitudes above operational. For the drones it doesn't 18 km for many hours. The primary goal really matter whether the payload is for of the ALTUS 2 test flights is to get a pis- Earth observation or communication. ton-engine, turbocharged, propeller- Next to the small satellite technology driven airplane up to 18 km, and to sus- we may certainly expect to hear more tain that for even days. The Altus 2 and about the drones in the near future. its sister ship, the Altus 1, are variants of the Predator surveillance drone built by Luck and Time General Atomics/Aeronautical Systems Heavenly fireworks - Just now that Inc. Altus (the name is Latin for "high") techniques emerge for building long-
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life satellites with revolutionary rocket American Medical Response (AMR), motors that use jets of ionized gas to has now fitted their vehicles with keep spacecraft in their allotted orbit, StarCom transceivers. Talking about satellites run the risk of getting sand- meteors and communications, while blasted by the Leonid meteor storm. you're out there at night, watching the The Leonids are a celestial river of "shooting stars", also watch for the rocky particles, most smaller than a "Iridium flares". Each Iridium commu- grain of sand, left in the trail of Comet nication satellite has three mirror-like Temple-Tuttle each time it swings past antennas about the size of a door. the Sun. Although astronomers admit Unlike the surfaces of other satellites, that it's hard to predict the real intensity which are concave or not very reflec- of the Leonids, when they will strike tive, Iridium antennas are flat, silver- around November 17, there will be an coated Teflon panels. When sunlight increased risk for satellites of getting hits at a certain angle, an Iridium casts hit. Satellite owners are concerned not a brilliant reflection up to 30 times just with a meteor blasting a gaping brighter than Venus, reaching a patch hole in a satellite. Meteor impacts also on Earth of about 50 square km. There can vaporize aluminum and other ma- are more than 70 Iridium satellites in terial on the satellite's surface, creating orbit, and the satellites' orbits are so plumes of plasma, electrically charged punctual that the flares can be predict- gas. These plasmas could induce stray ed to the second. Watch the Visual electrical charges inside the satellite, Satellite Observer's Home Page, zapping its circuitry. The Leonids are http://www.satellite.eu.org/sat/vsohp/ especially effective in creating these satintro.html, for more information on electrical charges because they are fast- satellite watching. Do something else moving, and strike a satellite surface for a change! Now you have the change with unusual energy. Some satellites of you watching the satellites instead of will be reoriented so that sensitive com- vice versa! ponents point away from the oncoming Life revisited - I keep coming back to stream of particles. NASA, for instance, the subject of "life". Right now there is a will reorient the Hubble Space remarkable change among scientists Telescope so that its back is pointing to- from just 20 years ago. There has been a ward the particles, rather than its deli- revival in the serious search for life in cate lens and solar panels. Meanwhile, outer space. For instance, the Planetary just as you thought meteors were only Society, in cooperation with the the harbingers of disaster, meteor trails University of California Berkeley, the can be used as a cheap alternative to SETI Institute and Arecibo Observatory, satellite communication systems. launched SERENDIP 4, its newest Amateur radio operators had noticed in search for extraterrestrial intelligence the 1920s that they could bounce signals (SETI), at Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The op- off these trails. Although the trails last timism is based partly on new knowl- only a few tenths of a second, there are edge. At least a dozen planets have so many that at any given time there are been found in orbit of distant stars. usually enough for a ground-based Biologists now know life is more robust transmitter to work with. A Seattle- than once believed. Microscopic organ- based company called StarCom isms have been found to thrive in ex- Technologies has developed a commu- treme conditions. Scientist even discov- nication system as a cheap alternative to ered that streptococcus bacteria have satellite systems. StarCom transmitters travelled to the moon and back, hitch- continually send probe signals to test hiking totally unprotected on the for reliable reflections. When a return Surveyor 3. The biomass deep beneath signal is sensed, the transmitter sends the Earth is now estimated to equal all out a rapid burst of digital data at fre- the biomass living on the surface. The quencies between 40 and 50 megahertz date at which the first organisms are that can be picked up over a wide area. thought to have appeared on Earth A private ambulance company, keeps being set back in time. And on
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and on. Yet, even with new optimism 5.2 ISPRS jobs directory installed that life is out there, many scientists be- lieve the evolution of intelligent life re- The jobs listing is provided by ISPRS as mains highly uncertain. Even though a service to the photogrammetric, re- life is believed to have started from the mote sensing and spatial information primordial soup in a mere 200 million industry. The listing is intended to be a years, it took another 4 billion years for register of opportunities for persons some great big brains to emerge on this who are seeking employment. very innocent planet. Scientists remain Employers are encouraged to submit uncertain as to the question of how and advertisements which are appropriate why intelligence develops. My guess is and relevant to these disciplines. The that the answer is already in Kurt link is the following: Vonnegut's moving new novel http://www.sli.unimelb.edu.au/isprs/ "Timequake". He says the driving forces mail-archives/index.html of the Universe are "Luck and Time". So it goes. Meanwhile, another event once To advertise, employers simply send an again confirmed the notion that our email to the address "isprsjobs@ sun- lives are closely linked to the Universe. spot.sli.unimelb.edu.au" and the adver- An intense wave of gamma rays, ema- tisement will appear automatically. The nating from a mysterious star 20,000 subject line of the email should describe light years away, struck the Earth's at- the position title, for example "remote mosphere on August 27, 1998. The wave sensing scientist". The body of the mes- hit the night side of the Earth and ion- sage should include: ized the atoms in the upper atmosphere to a level usually seen only during day- •a short position description time. It is extremely rare for an event •minimum qualifications or experience occurring outside the solar system to required have any measurable effect on the •the duration of the employment con- Earth, and it is amazing that such a tract burst could produce ionization levels •the place of employment similar to those produced by all the ra- •an indication of the remuneration diation coming from the Sun. Note that package or salary the Sun is only 8 light minutes from the •who to contact for further information Earth and thus the energy level from •the closing date for applications the star must have had an intensity at •an expiry date for the advertisement least 10 to the power 18 times that of the Sun! This all shows that the Earth does not exist in total isolation, and that its 5.3 ILWIS 2.2 for Windows, now physical environment is affected not shipping! only by our own Sun but also by ener- gy originating from distant parts of our ITC has just released ILWIS 2.2 for Universe. Maybe a very similar event Windows. did zap the dinosaurs out of existence 65 million years ago! Hi ho! Food for Next to new functionality, ILWIS ver- thought, I guess. sion 2.2 contains a large number of im- provements, emphasizing the unique References characteristics of this PC-based GIS and The online version of this story, includ- Image Processing package unrivalled ing selected references, can be found, for its user friendliness. New features as usual, under http://www.itc.nl/ are: ~bakker/earsel/. •Orthophoto •Kriging •Interactive creation of colour composites •improved representation for poly- gons, segments and points
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•use of tie-points for transformation of 5.4 New Environmental Observatory co-ordinates on vector maps •annotation of text layers The U.S. National Science Foundation, •table to point map conversion and in cooperation with the Danish Commi- •many other innovations. sion for Scientific Research in Green- land, has initiated planning for a new The documentation pack enables begin- Environmental Observatory at the sum- ners and experts to easily manage the mit of the Greenland ice sheet. This basic and advanced functionality of would be a year-round, multidiscipli- ILWIS 2.2 and shows how to use them nary facility, offering the opportunity in applications as land evaluation, for European and U.S. scientists to urban surveys, natural hazards and en- make observations, monitor and carry vironmental management. out experiments throughout the year. This proposal is a follow-up of a pilot Please contact: project in which 4 scientists lived and worked at the summit from August PCI – ILWIS Nederland B.V. 1997 until May 1998. They made meas- Hengelosestraat 99 urements of atmospheric chemistry and P.O. Box 6 energy balance, and collected samples 7500 AA Enschede for analysis in U.S. and European labor- The Netherlands atories. tel: +31 (0)53 4874337 fax: +31 (0)53 4874484 A plan has been drawn up for the new fa- e-mail: [email protected] cility and was submitted in August 1998 http: //www.itc.nl/ilwis to the National Science Foundation and the European Polar Board and has been well received. It can be consulted at: http://www.hwr.arizona.edu/Alpine/ Summit/observatory.html
6 REVIEWS, PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
REVIEW 6.1 Window on the World Running the Disc Following the instructions, I inserted Nick Kew, WebThing Ltd, Callington, UK the disc in my laptop computer - on which I run Linux - and opened "- Window on the World launch.htm" from the CDROM. There's As an enthusiastic advocate of bringing a Sunday Times logo, followed by some Remote Sensing to a wider audience[1], cover-page text introducing WOTW. I was delighted to learn that a giveaway The instructions actually specify "Net- CDROM on the subject had been in- scape 3 or above": in fact I found that, cluded in the Sunday Times, a major having worked around the problems UK national newspaper, on September (below), it is essentially identical in sev- 13th. The full title is "Window on the eral browsers including Netscape 2.02- World", but I shall refer to it as 4.05, HotJava 1.1.4 and ICE Browser "WOTW". In summary, I find WOTW to 4.03. The design requirement is simply be a rich collection, with the potential Frames support. However, there are to attract new readers to Remote serious problems, whose effect in prac- Sensing and its applications, and dis- tice depends more on the operating tributed through one of the best pos- system than on the Web browser used. sible channels available today short of a The first shock came when all of the TV series. It is unfortunately let down links generate a file-not-found error! A by poor engineering. quick look at the source reveals the
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problem: the document specified a file ings. Whilst not exactly comprehen- "HTML/LAUNCH.HTM" when in fact sive, it is nevertheless representative of it meant "html/launch.htm". It just hap- a broad range of applications. As a UK pens that certain filesystems will correct CD made for a UK market, there is quite this by virtue of being case-insensitive, naturally an emphasis on UK case stud- and WOTW unintentionally relies on ies, but this is by no means exclusive this. If the CD were editable, the fix and there is a good selection from would be a one-line Perl script, but around the world. Each case study is since it isn't, fixing it is rather more presented as a series of five bullet involved: a complete workaround is points, entitled "Problem", "Solution", described at my website[2]. Sadly, this "Cost/Benefit", "Methodology", and serious error is typical of a complete "References" (a minor criticism - I absence of quality control evident would have liked to see the References throughout WOTW. A validator including material from the Education showed 18 HTML errors, some of them section of WOTW itself, thus offering serious, over and above the bad links on relevant technical background to read- "launch.htm" alone. The character set ers). Unsurprisingly some cases fit this used is proprietary to the MS-Windows presentation better than others, but operating system family and is explicit- many of the cases are genuinely inter- ly forbidden in HTML, leading to a esting and should prove an excellent re- number of glitches. The problem source when we are called upon to ex- extends to the 'help' section of the CD plain the 'use' of Remote Sensing. itself, which I found at best unhelpful Perhaps the best thing this section can and at worst downright wrong. On accomplish is to reach decision-makers Windows '95 it installed mostly smooth- in the eleven industries represented. ly, and using Microsoft Internet Explor- er 4 (MSIE - for which WOTW is clearly The Education section offers an entirely designed) offers a smooth and comfort- different interface. Navigation is by a able viewing experience. I was not able set of graphical icons, which are by no to test the other systems supported means intuitive (for example, a volcano (Mac and RiscOS), although I believe icon leading to an image of an oil slick)! that Mac browsers at least offer bug- Many lessons have two different compatibility with Windows and there- threads of navigation, with a series of fore a 'working' installation. Indeed, if icons to the left and a 'forward' button they had described WOTW honestly as bottom-right. So, the link you are in- being designed for use with MSIE and tended to follow is the last thing you dispensed with the misleading claims see, while an alternative 'next' link (like "HTML"), I might have devoted presents itself. Confusing! This gener- this review to enthusing over what is al design together with the 'random' undoubtedly a content-rich collection. problems of proprietary pseudo-HTML, and an intensely irritating animated The Contents globe in almost every page, mean that WOTW is broadly divided into two sec- much of this material may be lost to all tions, entitled "Learn about Earth but the most determined reader. Observation" and "Business Applica- Thankfully the sound at least is option- tions" respectively. The two sections al and under the user's control! are almost entirely unconnected, and each has its own distinctive character. The best overview (and navigation) is Business Applications offers a struc- offered by a button labelled "introduc- tured approach that is friendly and easy tion". This leads to a long Contents to navigate, and informative. The edu- page with five sections: broadly cation section is chaotic and frustrating Introduction, Geosciences, Human to navigate, but offers buried treasures! Geography, Satellites in general, and Image Processing/GIS/GPS. Each of The "business" section comprises about them offers a satisfying breadth and 100 case studies, under 11 broad head- depth of introductory material, and
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many of them include a simple game or In the main (information) part of the quiz designed to sustain interest (for CD, the introduction to remote sensing Windows/MSIE users). In addition to is quite clear. I think even high school the main contents, there is a Guided students should get a basic understand- Tour, a set of Teachers Notes, an ing of RS. Even for me, some aspects Address Database, and a search facility. which I never quite understood, now The Guided Tour is basically a selection seemed clearer with the relative sim- from the main contents, and may plicity of the explanations. Although I present an attractive introduction for know the emphasis was being placed some users. The teachers notes address on satellite technology, I thought per- the UK curriculum. The Address data- haps that it could have been mentioned base is a letdown: there's no search op- that aerial photography is also a form of tion, and the display is an inconvenient remote sensing. graphical presentation that needlessly prevents the use of cut-and-paste to im- I also liked the alternative methods for port an address into another program selecting from among the more then (such as an addressbook). The search fa- 160 case studies. One can select accord- cility is another example of gratuitous ing to discipline (keywords), economic technology: although it is limited to sin- sector, geographical area or alphabetic gle-word search, it is presented with an order. There are some sub-directories, elaborate technical introduction. Like as well as the option for combined so much else on WOTW, it works on searches (economic sector/discipline or Windows but fails unnecessarily on geographic area/discipline), with the Unix. exception of economic sector/geo- graphical area. References [1] See for example Having been initiated in Europe, the gopher://gopher.gis.umn.edu:70/0R820 range of case studies on the CD was, 84-87891-1m/rsgis/lists/imagrsl/1996/ overall, quite extensive but, for me hav- imagrs-lJan1996.list ing a Caribbean bias, I couldn’t help no- [2] http://www.webthing.com/re- ticing that there were only 2 case stud- view/WOTW/ ies from the Caribbean. I also happened to be looking for a specific environmen- tal hazard – hurricanes – and was pleas- REVIEW 6.2 Information from space, a col- antly surprised that one of the 2 cases lection of demonstration case studies dealt with hurricanes. It was also a bit disappointing that there were barely published by the CEO programme, any cases dealing with hazards affect- EUR/18080EN. (see also chapter 4) ing coastal areas, such as mass coastal erosion. Paula Drakes, MSc-Student, ITC, The Netherlands However, the CD lends itself to enjoy- able browsing of all the contents; one Having had the opportunity to browse can easily be carried away. There is through this CD on more than one occa- much to be learnt from the operational sion, I should like to share my opinion examples of RS showcased on this me- on its contents and practicability. So, dium. For me, the simplicity of expres- what did I like about it? Definitely, the sion of the complexity of satellite RS screen saver – very scientific-looking. was perhaps the CD’s most endearing After one day of using the screen saver, feature. one is inclined to remember how useful and practical RS has become in certain Anyone wishing to receive this CD aspects of our lives, which we other- should contact the CEO Helpdesk: wise would not really spare a thought fax: +39 0332 785461 for. email: [email protected]
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REPORT 6.3 RSS '98 "Developing Interna- AVHRR imagery for agricultural appli- tional Connections" cations, and space techniques as an aid in disaster management. The need was Condensed from a report written by Dr. emphasised to develop products whose Gérard Bégni, Chairman of the French usefulness can be easily understood Society of Photogrammetry and Remote and used by decision makers in various Sensing (SFPT) fields, and to ensure that the local structures are adequate to adopt the This 24th annual conference of The new techniques and staff sufficiently Remote Sensing Society (UK) was the trained to develop these to meet local second organised jointly with the SFPT, needs. the first having been held in 1994 at Grignon, near Paris, organised by the Each year the RSS meetings enjoy the National Institute of Agronomy (INA), support of their corporate members when Dr. Colette Girard, well-known to with a well-attended commercial exhi- EARSeL members, presided over the bition. Each year also the RSS organises SFPT. The French Space Agency(CNES) their conference dinner in a prestigious lent its support to the meeting and Mr. venue and this year was no exception Gérard Brachet, Director General, made the venue being the historic and beauti- a presentation at the Opening Session ful Leeds Castle in Kent, with minstrels on the theme of the necessity to foster evoking the shades of Henry VIII and international cooperation, both in the Anne Boleyn, who used the castle as a development of Earth observation hunting lodge. During the awards cere- systems and in the implementation of mony Lord Hesketh presented to Dr. applications. In particular, he outlined Jean Meyer-Roux of JRC, Ispra, the the activities of the CEOS, which France Society's gold medal for his life-long presided over in 1997. contribution to furthering the applica- tions of remote sensing techniques. The novelty of RSS'98, which was at- tended by nearly 300 people from sev- During the closing session Mme. M.J. eral countries, was that for the first Lefevre (CNES) outlined French activ- time it offered bi-lingual sessions, that ities in Earth observation and the im- it to say that authors presented their portance attached to international coop- work in the language of their choice, ei- eration both through the European ther English or French. During the Space Agency and with other national three bi-lingual sessions four papers apace agencies. Industrial links are also were presented in French and the edi- strong between British and French com- tors of the proceedings are to be panies. Mr. Peter Churchill of CEO, praised for including an abstract of all Ispra, enlarged upon the fact that in the papers in both languages. near future space data will be available from 170 instruments but users, both These bi-lingual sessions illustrated public and private, are not sufficiently very well the theme of the conference aware of how to use all these data. "Developing International Connec- Scientists need to make a great effort to tions". For example, Mme. Michèle develop operational systems that allow Chevrel, who is a member of the users to extract useful information from UNESCO Observatoire du Shara et du these data. Sahel, gave a presentation on the con- tribution of remote sensing to the study A full report of the meeting written in and prevention of desertification. Other French by Mr.Bégni will be published in presentations covered national projects the Bulletin of the SFPT, and the list of on themes such as forestry and hydro- papers presented may be consulted on logical modelling in such countries as the server of the Remote Sensing Botswana, China, Paraguay and Moroc- Society.
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Geography, University of Nottingham, and X-band (3 µm wavelength), and ap- Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. plications in forestry may be anticipat- Email: [email protected]. ed. This was one of the main topics of the recent workshop at Baveno where a REPORT 6.4 PIERS Workshop on Advances number of examples and new applica- in Radar Methods, Baveno. Italy tions were presented. An initial presen- tation of the ideas at IGARSS'97 and a 20 - 22 July 1998. paper appearing in Electronics Letter in Report by Prof. (em.) Preben Gudmandsen, 1997 (S.R. Cloude and K.P. Lyngby, Denmark Papathanassiou, Polarimetric optimisa- tion in radar interferometry, E.L. Vol. 33, When we were planning for the ERS No 13, pp. 1176-78) found a number of SAR we were building on the limited scientific teams that were ready to ex- experiences obtained during the short plore and develop this new possibility. life of SEASAT in 1978. We foresaw a And the development has gone very number of interesting applications re- fast as it appeared from the workshop. lated to the ocean, coastal areas, sea and Another important topic of the work- land ice and glaciers. The all-weather shop was related to bi-static radar ap- capability and the possibility of obser- plications. Some of us tend to consider vations during winter months at high bi-static radar techniques as something latitudes were considered important. exotic and for feinschmeckers who And we have not been disappointed. A study the interaction between an elec- very large number of scientific publica- tromagnetic field and a target or surface tions based on ERS SAR data - ESA says at large. With the suggestion of using more than 6 000 - have appeared since forthcoming wideband digital signals the launch of ERS-1 in 1991 describing a from geo-stationary television satellites wealth of applications of SAR data - as radar sources we may get a system and many way beyond expectations. that may be useful for target detection I think we have to admit that at that by way of bi-static radar techniques. If time nobody thought of the application this materialises - with an acceptable of the data for interferometry for the signal-to- noise ratio - we shall have to simple reason that we did not believe dig out the signatures already investi- that the stability of the system with re- gated and we shall need a great number spect to orbit and electronics would be of additional signature studies. Just sufficient. But we did get such system, consider that a receiver installed in an and we have witnessed a fantastic de- aircraft or on a satellite - with beam- velopment of this techniques which still steering phased array - will see the finds new applications. What also sur- Earth surface at a range of incidence an- prised the present author is the speed gles determined by the orbit inclination by which these new techniques and ap- and antenna look-angle, for instance, plications developed. and we shall see a number of new elec- Something similar seems to have hap- tromagnetic scattering problems to be pened within the last few years with tackled by experiments and modelling. the development of software to exploit Bi-static polarisation features will be fully polarimetric data to improve the one subject. The necessary synchronisa- interferometer techniques by what is tion between transmitter and receivers called polarimetric optimisation of is likely to be obtained by means of the radar interferometry. Utilising all pola- GPS system. It appeared that the princi- rimetric channels the coherence of the ples are already applied for military data is enhanced so that interferometry purposes, detection of low-flying air- may be useful in many more cases. craft, for instance, and most likely a Thus, it is shown that this techniques large data base of (classified) signatures permits observation of targets embed- have been accumulated. (For a person ded in vegetation, for instance, even at who is working in high-latitude re- the high frequencies of C-band (ERS) search the idea is not so interesting
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REPORT since the illumination from a geo-sta- 6.5 Report on ABDMAP Workshop tionary satellite will arrive under very in Crete small grazing angles and beyond about 81° latitudes there will be no signal at Iain Woodhouse, University of Dundee, UK all). A third topic was the application of The Institute of Marine Biology of very wide-band signals for detection of Crete, were hosts for the fifth workshop targets embedded in the ground. Anti- on Algal Bloom Detection, Monitoring personnel mines are obvious targets. A and Prediction (ABDMAP) on 23/24 wide-band noise radar appears attrac- September 1998. ABDMAP in a CEO tive because it is simple consisting only Concerted Action led by the University of a noise-modulated transmitter and a of Dundee, with the aim of holding a synchronised receiver with a correlator series of seven workshops bringing that could result in a very fine range together the diversity of professionals resolution. However, for technical rea- interested in algal blooms. This work- sons the range is limited. Some results shop paid special attention to the value were presented at the workshop but the of remote sensing data for modelling of present writer was not convinced of the algal blooms, but also considered the success of this technique. Dispersion research and monitoring activities tak- may be a serious limitation and espe- ing place around the Eastern Mediterra- cially in moist soils. But one shall never nean (including the Black Sea). Partici- say never. Signal processing has ad- pants came from a number of Mediter- vanced very much as demonstrated and ranean countries, as well as from the the development will most likely not UK, France, Italy and Germany. stop at the present level of advanced signal processing - carried out in real A range of topics were discussed, but time. the main conclusion from the workshop It was an interesting workshop with was that there is a definite role for about 65 oral presentations and posters remote sensing information as input to within five workshops to formulate biological models, but that the full use conclusions and recommendations. The of such data is yet to be implemented titles of these workshops may give a on a regular basis. However, this work- clue to the diverse subjects dealt with: shop was successful in developing new Interferometry with regards to polarim- collaborations between remote sensing etry, Dk, and wide band; Ultra wide scientists and modellers. band and multispectral radars; bi-static systems with emphasis on random and For a copy of the workshop report or for parasitic effects, polarimetry, 3-D imag- more information on future workshops, ing; Information fusion including navi- please contact Sheila Newcombe at the gating the model space and existing University of Dundee (s.k.new- data sets; Unconventional new tech- [email protected]). The University niques and technologies for future ra- of Lille (France) will host the next work- dars. shop on 16-17th February 1999. The The workshop was organised by the final meeting will take place in Bangor, Space Applications Institute of the Joint Wales, in May 1999. Research Institute (JRC, Ispra, contact: Dr. Ann Franchois), and attended by about 100 scientists. Contributions and 6.6 US-European Collaboration in conclusions will be published in the Space Science workshop proceedings. A special issue of the Journal of Electromagnetic Waves This study has been conducted jointly and Applications is devoted to papers by the European Space Science by participants reviewed in the normal Committee (ESSC) of the European way. Science Foundation and the Space Studies Board of the U.S. National Research Council.
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The introduction to the chapter on the 6.7 ISPRS Commission VII Sympo- Earth Observing System explains how sium in the1980s the success of satellites such as Landsat, NOAA, METEOSAT, ERS Compiled by G.Remetey-Fülöpp and and SPOT,and co-operative pro- Peter Winkler grammes such as UARS and TOPEX- POSEIDON, led to the decision to build The Symposium (referred to also as a Space Station, to which Europe was ECO BP’98) was devoted to Resources invited to contribute. The convergence and Environmental Monitoring, topics of interests led the agencies concerned of the ISPRS Commission VII. Held in to join in building a system that could Budapest from 1-4 September 1998, it meet their objectives by improving the attracted 196 registered participants monitoring capabilities of space from 33 countries of 5 continents (35 systems and at the same time reducing from Hungary). 62 invited Hungarian their own financial contribution senior decision-makers and additional through cost sharing. The concept of 59 professional visitors who attended permanent polar platforms for interna- the open day devoted to commercial tional global Earth observation was exhibition and presentations. born. The venue of the event was arranged in The report goes on to outline the histo- the classical building of the Hungarian ry of this collaboration, the develop- Academy of Sciences just in the centre ments on both sides of the Atlantic, the of Budapest. Four members of the Announcements of Opportunity and ISPRS Council and 13 of the 16 ISPRS the instruments proposed. It became ev- Commission VII Working Group chair- ident after a while that the objectives of persons and Secretaries participated in the U.S. and European science differed the Symposium and four of the six and no joint research programmes were Advisory Board members were also proposed. From these difficulties, how- present. ever, lessons have been learned and The Local Organising Committee was these are analysed in depth. The rea- chaired by Commission VII Secretary sons for the lack of success appear to be Peter Winkler. that co-operation in Earth science (as opposed to Earth observation) between During the preparation period of the NASA and ESA is relatively recent, and Symposia the incoming 186 papers (25 the undercurrent of competitive forces in digital form) were screened by the still influences Earth observation pro- Scientific Programme Committee with grammes at these agencies. It should be direct involvement of Commission VII noted, however, that scientific co-opera- officers and WG chairpersons co-ordi- tion between the U.S. and Europe in nated by György Büttner, a new mem- Earth sciences has increased significant- ber of the Advisory Board and editor of ly in the past 15 years, thanks to the the Proceedings. Altogether 127 oral IGBP and WCRP and other similar pro- papers (15% submitted also in digital grammes. form) were presented in 26 thematic sessions including the EARSeL sessions. The report is available on-line of the Special plenary sessions on UNISPACE ESSC Internet site (http://www. III and the ISPRS Congress’2000 theme esf.org/essc). Hard copies can be order were also organised. from Mr. Andrew Smith, Communica- tions Officer at the European Science Opening and keynotes Foundation Chaired by Ákos Detrekıi, President of 1 Quai Lezay-Marnésia the Hungarian Society of Surveying, 67080 Strasbourg Cedex, France Mapping and Remote Sensing, the Fax: +33 (0)3 88 37 05 32 audience was addressed by ISPRS Pres- http://www.esf.org ident Lawrance Fritz, and prominent representatives of the Hungarian gov-
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ernment and science including Under- isations like ISPRS to join in helping to state Secretary of the Ministry of Trans- make recommendations for a “plan of port, Communications and Water Man- action” (for using space technology) as a agement, President of the Hungarian product of the UNISPACE III Confer- Space Board Jenı Manninger, Managing ence which will be held in Vienna 1999. Vice-president András Siegler of the M. Laffaiteur of CNES focused on the National Committee for Technological challenges of bringing space technology Development as well as Iván Almár, (including RS) to developing countries President of the Scientific Council on and how the various space agencies of Space Research. developed countries might better coop- erate not only themselves but with the As a tribute in memoriam of former developing countries as well. He con- Commission President Roberto Pereira cluded with a discussion on the role of da Cunha (U 1997), the first keynote space agencies of developed counties address was given by Thelma Krug on and recommendations including: 1) the the Monitoring Activities in the Brazil- transfer of technical expertise 2) the ian Amazon, while Gottfried Konecny inclusion of developing countries in highlighted the operational applicabil- research programmes on the environ- ity of remote sensing and GIS by a ment in the context of global change, 3) series of examples. space applications for the prevention and reduction of natural disasters, and 30 poster papers were displayed and 6 4) help develop pilot projects for Earth commercial exhibitors : Spot Image, observation. ISPRS Secretary General Bentley, PCI, Erdas-Bekes, OMSz and John Trinder provided an overview of FÖMI RSC presented their products. ISPRS stressed that its non-governmen- tal status permits an enormous amount In the UNISPACE III Plenary Session of freedom in action. He also discussed four presentations targeted the role of ISPRS’s involvement in UNISPACE III RS and space technology in the interna- indicating that the organisation has tional community with special empha- offered to participate in the Committee sis on international policy, education for the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and development. (COPUOS) III in the agenda item “The Sergio Camacho of the United Nations’ environment and natural resources and Office of Outer Space Affairs made an remote sensing”. He further described overview of UNISPACE activities since the MoU between ISPRS and the UN 1982. He discussed the rapid advances Office of Outer Space Affairs where in all fields of applications that provid- ISPRS would jointly sponsor events, ed social and economic benefits to the seek financial support for UN led events world populations and the increased and provide scientific and technical role of the private sector. He empha- expertise where needed. Finally, W.- sized how these changes, combined Balogh’s talk featured the activities of with the enormous shift in the world the United Nations International Space geopolitical situation since 1982 and the University and the Youth Forum (- increased public awareness of environ- between age 12-18). ISU’s growing mental issues, are driving the agenda Alumni organisation is over 1000 strong for UNISPACE III. He explained the and covers 60 countries. The YF and goals of UNISPACE III and outlined two ISU will be featured at the UNISPACE primary objectives: 1) To promote the III Forum in Vienna in 1999. use of space technology to assist in the After the plenary sessions the Sympo- solution of problems of regional and sium continued in 3 parallel sessions, global significance, and 2) To strengthen according to the topics of working the capabilities of UN member states, groups of Commission VII, which are particularly developing countries, to use the follows: the applications of space research for economic, social and cultural develop- • WG VII/1 Fundamental physics and ment. He concluded by inviting organ- remote sensing (7 presentations)
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• WG VII/2 Applications of RS and GIS Commission VII was arranged with for sustainable development (23 presen- Working Group chairpersons serving as tations!) panellists. Working Group chairpersons • WG VII/3 Application of high resolu- presented their proposals and sugges- tion satellite imagery (16 presentations) tions of subthemes for Commission VII • WG VII/4 Automated image interpre- technical sessions, workshops and tuto- tation and analysis (13 presentations) rials relevant to the possible interpreta- • WG VII/5 Global monitoring (19 tions of the main topics of the Congress presentations) explained by J.Clevers. • WG VII/6 Radar applications (13 In the Closing session secretary general presentations) J.Trinder gave a lecture on the future of • WG VII/7 Non-renewable resources ISPRS, the society dealing with infor- and geotechnical applications (8 presen- mation gathered from remotely sensed tations) imagery. Prizes offered by the Hungarian Mili- Special EARSeL Session tary and Civilian Mapping Agencies The well-attended session, chaired by were given for best papers and posters. EARSeL Chairman Robin Vaughan, had In the poster competition, based on the six presentations with lecturers includ- jury led by ISPRS 2nd Vice President ing M.Buchroitner (Cartographic relief Marcio Barbosa, the prize winner was representations with DEM filtering F.González-Alonso (Spain). The jury led techniques) and A.Spiteri. (The deign of by Commission VII President has eval- a regional approach to combat disasters uated the written remarks of session employing the logical framework meth- chairperson and the prize for the best odology). The European proposal for oral paper was awarded to D.P.Rao Terms of Reference in data fusion was (India) in the Closing Ceremony. introduced by L.Wald. Effective appli- The Commission VII has sent 50 copies cability of remote sensing tools in forest of its Archives to RICS Books for sale fires prevention and assessment was immediately after the Symposium. Sug- demonstrated by E.Chuvieco. The EAR- gested price was determined as 100 SeL-SIG’s activity related to the applica- USD. tion of satellite data in meteorology and climate research was overviewed by Summing up, the ECO BP’98 was obvi- E.Parlow. The European CORINE Land ously a success from the scientific point Cover database project was presented of view. Major application areas where by G.Büttner. novel research and technology develop- ment methodology were applied Plenary session on “GI for all” include hyperspectral sensing, environ- A special session was devoted to the mental risk and/or site analysis, global, theme of the next ISPRS “Congress Geo- regional and local monitoring as well as information for All”. First Commission assessments related to sustainable President highlighted the role and developments. The synergetic integrat- importance of resource and environ- ed use of RS and GIS technologies was mental monitoring in the implementa- the case in the majority of applications. tion of the Global Spatial Data Infra- structure (NSDI), introduced the goals of the initiative improving the knowl- edge on it and stimulated multination implementation by stressing “think globally, act locally”. The ISPRS Con- gress was promoted by the multimedia supported presentation of Congress Director Klaas Beek who invited the audience to come to Amsterdam in July 2000. A panel discussion chaired by Jan Clevers, Congress liaison officer to
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7 FORTHCOMING MEETINGS AND COURSES
9-11 February 1999 5th International Conference: Infosystems for Agriculture and Forestry within Seè, Eastern Bohemia, Europe and our country Czech Republic Contact: Dr. Tomas Benes,UHUL Forest Management Institute Nabrezni, 1326, 250 44 Branndys nad Labem, Czech Republic Tel: +420 202 804 481; Fax: +420 202 803 371; Email: [email protected]
1-3 March 1999 13th International Conference and Workshops on Applied Geologic Remote Vancouver, BC Sensing: Practical Solutions for Real-World Problems Contact: ERIM Geologic Conferences, Box 134008, Ann Arbor, MI 48113-4008, USA Fax: +1 734 994 5123
7-9 April 1999 ISPRS Working Group II/6 Workshop on: Paris, France 3D Geospatial Data Production - Meeting Application Requirements" Contact: Dr. David McKeown (Chair WG II/6) Tel:+33 (0) 1-412-268-2626; Fax: +33 (0) 1-412-681-5576 Email: [email protected]; Http:/www.cs.cmu.edu/~MAPSLab/isprs.html
12-16 April 1999 2nd IAA Symposium on: "Small Satellites for Earth Observation" Berlin, Germany Contact: Bernd Kirchner Tel: +49-30-67055-545; Fax: +49-30-67055-532; Email: [email protected]
EARSeL General Assembly and 19th Symposium 31 May - 2 June 1999 Contact : EARSeL Secretariat ([email protected]), and Valladolid, Spain Prof. J. L. Casanova, University of Valladolid Fax: +34 83 423130; Email: [email protected]
3-4 June 1999 EARSeL/ISPRS Joint Workshop (WG III/V,WG IV/III,WG VII/4) Valladolid, Spain Contact: Dr. Manos Baltsavias Email: [email protected]
1-3 June 1999 IUFRO Conference on Remote Sensing and Forest Monitoring Rogow, Poland Faculty of Forestry, Rakowiecka 26/30, O2-528 Warsaw, Poland Fax: +48 22 491375; Http: //giswitch.sggw.waw.pl/rogow99/
19-30 July 1999 UNISPACE III Vienna, Austria Office for Outer Space Affairs, United Nations Office, Room E-0952 Vienna International Centre, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Fax: +43 1 21345 5830; Email: [email protected]
28 June- 2 July 1999 IGARSS’99 Hamburg, Germany Contact: Prof. W. Alpers, University of Hamburg Fax: +49 40 4123 5713 Email: [email protected]
8-10 September 1999 RSS'99 : Earth Observation: from data to information Cardiff, UK Contact: Mr. Paul Pan, University of Wales, Cardiff Tel: +44 1222 874 271; Fax: +44 1222 874 301 Email: [email protected]; Http://www.cf.ac.uk/rss99
16-23 July 2000 19th ISPRS Congress - Geoinformation for All Amsterdam, Contact: Congress Director, Prof. Dr. K.-J. Beek The Netherlands Email: [email protected]; Http: //www.itc.nl/~isprs
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