grsNL0608.qxd 5/7/08 12:40 PM Page 1 http://www.grss-ieee.org/menu.taf?menu=Publications&detail=newsletter Editor: David Kunkee Cumulative Issue #147 June 2008 ISSN 0274-6338 grsNL0608.qxd 5/7/08 12:40 PM Page 2 Table of Contents IEEE GRS-S AdCom, Officers Newsletter Input and Deadlines and Committee Chairs ...........................2 The following is the schedule for the GRS-S Newsletter. If you would like to con- tribute an article, please submit your input according to this schedule. Input is Editor’s Comments .................................3 preferred in Microsoft Word, WordPerfect or ASCII for IBM format (please send disk and hard copy) as IEEE now uses electronic publishing. Other word process- President’s Message ..............................3 ing formats, including those for Macintosh, are also acceptable, however, please be sure to identify the format on the disk and include the hard copy. AdCom Members ..................................5 GRS-S Newsletter Schedule Chapters and Contact Information ..........6 Month June Sept Dec March Input April 15 July 15 Oct 15 Jan 15 GRS-S MEMBER HIGHLIGHTS GRS-S Member Profile: Siri Jodha Singh Khalsa...................................................7 IEEE GRS-S AdCom, Officers and Committee Chairs – 2008 GRS-29 (Division IX) In Memoriam: Professor Jin Au Kong.......7 President Fellow Evaluation IGARSS 2013 Anthony K. Milne Wooil M. Moon Peter Woodgate GRS-S Members Elevated to Senior .........9 Executive Vice President Fellow Search PACE Alberto Moreira David M. LeVine Paul Racette From the Chapter Activities Chair............9 Vice President for Technical Membership Social Implications of Activities Steven C. Reising Technology Nominations FEATURE Steve Reising Keith Raney Vice President for Meetings C. Luther, D. Goodenough Multisensor Study of Soil and Wetland 2008 AdCom Members and Symposia Public Relations/Publicity Melba Crawford Degradation in Semi-Arid Mediterrean Melba M. Crawford David Weissman Diane Evans Ecosystems..........................................10 Vice President for Operations Standards and Metric Karen St. Germain and Finance Jon A. Benediktsson David G. Goodenough REPORTS Karen M. St. Germain Strategic Planning Steven Reising FARS Technical Committee Report..........18 Vice President for Alberto Moreira Paul Smits Professional Activities Technical Activities 2009 AdCom Members Jon Benediktsson Paul Smits CALL FOR PAPERS...........................19 Adriano Camps Vice President for Transactions Editor Roger King Information Resources Jon A. Benediktsson David M. LeVine UPCOMING CONFERENCES...........24 Jay Pearlman GRS Letters Editor Wooil M. Moon Secretary William Emery Alberto Moreira Thomas J. Jackson J-STARS Editor Anthony K. Milne Director of Finance Ellsworth LeDrew 2010 AdCom Members Notice to Potential James A. Gatlin Newsletter Editor Advertisers Director of Education David Kunkee Jon Benediktsson Granville E. Paules III IGARSS 2007 William J. Emery The IEEE GRS-S Newsletter publishes paid Director Corporate Relations Ignasi Corbella Thomas J. Jackson advertisements for job openings, short William Gail IGARSS 2008 Jay Pearlman courses, products, and services which are of Awards John Kerekes Kamal Sarbandi interest to the GRS-S membership. The rates Werner Wiesbeck Eric Miller Motoyuki Sato for advertisements published in the Martti Hallikainen IGARSS 2009 Honorary Life Members Newsletter are: Chapter Activities Harold Annegarn Andrew Blanchard Per Diane Evans IGARSS 2010 Keith R. Carver Size Dimensions Insertion Conference Coordination Paul Smits Martti Hallikainen Full page 7” x 10” $500.00 Melba Crawford, Paul Smits Karen M. St. Germain Kiyo Tomiyasu Half page $400.00 Constitution and Bylaws IGARSS 2011 Fawwaz T. Ulaby Vertical 3.375” x 10” Alberto Moreira Motoyuki Sato Werner Wiesbeck Horizontal 7” x 4.875” Quarter page 3.375” x 4.875” $300.00 Postal Information and Copyright Notice IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Newsletter (ISSN 0274-6338) is published quarterly by the The Editor reserves the right to reject adver- Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., tisements. Please address all enquires to: Headquarters: 3 Park Avenue, 17th floor, New York, NY 10016-5997. $1.00 per member per year Ms. Susan Schneiderman (included in Society fee) for each member of the Geoscience and Remote Sensing Soc.. Printed in Advertising Sales Manager U.S.A. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society Newsletter, IEEE, 445 Hoes Lane, IEEE Magazines/Newsletters Piscataway, NJ 08854. 445 Hoes Lane © 2008 IEEE. Permission to copy without fee all or part of any material without a copyright notice is Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331 granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, and the Tel: +1 732-562-3946 title of the publication and its date appear on each copy. To copy material with a copyright notice Fax: +1 732-981-1855 requires special permission. Please direct all inquiries or requests to the IEEE Copyrights Manager. IEEE Customer Service Phone: +1 732 981 1393, Fax:+1 732 981 9667. 2 IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society Newsletter • March 2008 grsNL0608.qxd 5/7/08 12:40 PM Page 3 Editor’s Comments spectral and multi-spectral measurements can be combined with field measurements to assess the impact of human induced changes to fragile ecosystems. The Newsletter also David B. Kunkee, Editor contains a brief report from the Frequency Allocations in The Aerospace Corporation Remote Sensing Technical Committee. The topic is focused NPOESS Space Systems on work the committee is doing to bring attention to potential PO Box 92957 MS M4-922 threats in the 57- to 59.3-GHz region from high density wire- Los Angeles, CA 90009-2957 Phone: 310-336-1125 less systems. Fax: 310-563-1132 In the Member Highlights Section you will find a profile E-mail: [email protected] of Dr. Siri Jodha Singh Khalsa. Siri Jodha has been very active in the area of establishing standards for GEOSS and he encourages more of us to make contributions in this area. Many of you may remember that Earth day was April 22 – On page 7 you will find an obituary for Prof. Jin Au Tuesday this year. Wikipedia suggests that the April 22 Earth Kong. It is difficult to work within electromagnetics or Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern envi- remote sensing and not take note of Prof. Kong’s extensive ronmental movement from 1970 when on that day ‘20 million contributions. My first meeting of him, at μrad in 1992 in Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to Boulder, included a discussion on microwave polarimetry as demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment’. The arti- he carefully annotated my poster with an alternate descrip- cle goes on to relate the increasing scope of environmental tion of the third Stokes parameter. It is with sadness that we awareness over the decades. Clearly, the awareness of global report his passing. environment is growing and with it, the value of remotely Feature articles and member highlights tend to define this sensed geophysical data for gaining accurate perspectives and Newsletter. The December issue featured an article on multi- effective policy related decisions. spectral thematic mapping and analysis. This issue’s feature This edition of the Newsletter features an article on mea- addresses measurements of soil and wetland degradation suring Soil and Wetland degradation using satellite and ancil- lary data. The paper describes how remotely sensed hyper- (continued on page 17) President’s Message Atlanta, on February 28th. Over 2300 abstracts have been submitted for the Conference which is shaping up to be one of our best yet. The Administrative Committee of GRSS (AdCom) also Anthony K. Milne University of New South Wales met in Atlanta to conduct the on-going business of the School of Biological, Earth, and Env. Society. At this meeting AdCom approved two President’s Sciences Initiatives. These involved the establishment of Advisory Sydney, NSW 2052 AUSTRALIA Sub-Committees tasked with reporting back to the AdCom Phone: 61-2-9385-8097; within 18 months. The first-Sub Committee will concentrate 61-2-9451-4628 Fax: 61-2-9451-4628 on identifying new developments in the “Science, Technology E-mail: [email protected] and Applications” areas of remote sensing that are likely to have an impact on the nature and scope of GRSS activities into the immediate future. The Sub-Committee will report back on opportunities for GRSS to sponsor, nurture and accel- Dear Colleagues, erate innovative research in remote sensing science technolo- gy and applications. A very successful Technical Program Committee (TPC) The second Sub-Committee established is the “Global meeting for selecting papers and organizing the program for the Boston, July 2008 IGARSS Conference, was held in (continued on page 4) Cover Information: Images from the playa lakes area in Los Monegros, a semi-arid karstic environment in northern Spain: False color composite (bands 3, 2, 1) of the ASTER image (top) and the corresponding Spectral Angle Mapper classification output (bottom). The images cover an area of 8.5 km x 6 km (see page 10). IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society Newsletter • June 2008 3 grsNL0608.qxd 5/7/08 12:40 PM Page 4 Newsletter Editorial Board Members: (President’s Message continued from page 3) Membership Task Force” whose job it is to recommend policies David B. Kunkee, Editor The Aerospace Corporation and procedures that will help GRSS extend its scientific, tech- NPOESS Space Systems nical and professional services more effectively into third world PO Box 92957 MS M4-922 and developing countries, with the objectives of enabling Los Angeles, CA 90009-2957 Phone: 310-336-1125 GRSS to more ably support and nurture its global membership Fax: 310-563-1132 as well as contribute to societal benefits in these regions. E-mail: [email protected] Please contact the conveners of these committees, Kamal Sarabandi [email protected] and Bill Emery [email protected] respectively if you would like to contribute William J.