CONTENTS FOREWORD Foreword, 3 In 2012 we celebrate the 50 th anniversary of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Chapter 1 Formation and Early Years, 4 Sensing Society. The roots of the society can be traced back to February 1962 in Dallas, Texas, when a small group of mostly Texas-based engineers and scientists met for the first Chapter 2 Transformation, 12 time as the Group on Geoscience Electronics (G-GE). The name changed to the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) in 1981, at which time the focus became Chapter 3 Changes, 20 satellite and airborne remote sensing. The current GRSS is very different from the G-GE of 1962. It is now a very successful international society with 3400 members, and Chapter 4 International Outreach, 26 the membership continues to grow worldwide every year. GRSS organizes many significant activities year in and year out. Its very successful Chapter 5 Maturation, 34 annual flagship conference, IGARSS, is held on different continents and is currently Chapter 6 Diversity, 46 attended by approximately 2000 participants. The Society also sponsors several more specialized symposia every year. The GRSS has three high quality technical journals, Chapter 7 Growth, 58 which are published either monthly or bimonthly, as well as a very successful quarterly newsletter. Additionally, the GRSS has developed a strong portfolio of diverse professional Chapter 8 Today and Tomorrow, 68 and technical activities for its members. Currently, most GRSS members come from North America and Europe (IEEE Regions 1-6 and 8), but the GRSS Administrative Notes, 80 Committee (AdCom) continues to work diligently to promote GRSS activities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, under the umbrella of the GRSS Globalization Initiative. This book commemorates the fifty years of the GRSS. It summarizes the history and growth of Society activities through the years. It is important to note that the GRSS is comprised of volunteers. On behalf of the current AdCom, I express my appreciation for the contributions of these volunteers. They have made the journey a success. This book Page 1: Image shows a spinning formation of ice, clouds, and low-flying fog off would not have been possible without the commitment and outstanding work of several the eastern coast of Greenland. This image was acquired by Landsat 7’s Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM) sensor on May 14, 2001. Image credit: NASA. individuals; in particular, I would like to recognize Keith Carver, Werner Wiesbeck, Kiyo Tomiyasu, David G. Goodenough, Alberto Moreira and Melba Crawford. Lastly, This page: Three views of Hurricane Andrew on August 23, 24 and 25, 1992, as the hurricane moves east to west on its track over south Florida and making landfall I appreciate the critical contribution of GRSS Executive Director, Tammy I. Stein, Copyright © 2012 IEEE GRSS. in a sparsely populated coastal area of Louisiana around 8 a.m. CDT on August 26, who oversaw the project and ensured its success. Permission to copy without fee all or 1992. This time-series of images was created with data from the Geostationary part of any material without a copy - Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-7), which is operated by the National right notice is granted provided that Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NASA’s GOES Project, which creates the copies are not made or distributed GOES images and animations, is located at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, for direct commercial advantage, and Greenbelt, MD. Image Credit: NASA GSFC. the title of the publication and its date Jón Atli Benediktsson appear on each copy. To copy material The writers and editors have taken great care to reflect accurate history and detail with a copyright notice requires special contained in the IEEE GRSS 50th Anniversary Commemorative Book, A Celebration President, 2011-2012 permission. Please direct all permission of the First 50 Years, 1962-2012 ; any errors or misrepresentations contained therein IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society requests to [email protected]. are regretted. 2 IEEE G EOSCIENCE AND R EMOTE S ENSING S OCIETY A Celebration of the First 50 Years, 1962 –2012 3 the tiny farm community of Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, and earned his B.S.E.E. at the University of Min - In the Beginning nesota in the Twin Cities in 1927. Berkner had The IRE board followed Berkner’s recommen - learned to fly at the University of Minnesota, and dation and named Robert W. Olson as G-GE’s first after a year at the Bureau of Standards, he had been Chairman. Olson, Berkner’s colleague at Texas In - appointed to the first Byrd Expedition to Antarctica struments, had known his mentor since World War CFoHrmatAion PandT EaErly RYea rs 1 from 1928-1930 as both an engineer and aviator. II when both worked for the U.S. Navy Bureau of During the 1930s, he worked closely with scientists Aeronautics in Washington, D.C. Olson had pre - studying the ionosphere, and when war broke out ceded Berkner to Texas Instruments when he joined in 1941, Berkner headed the Radar Section in the Pat Haggerty, the founder of TI, in the Laboratory U.S. Bureau of Aeronautics, and led the Bureau’s and Manufacturing Division of GSI, a Dallas pred - Electronics Material Branch from 1943 to 1945. ecessor of Texas Instruments, in 1946. Olson helped ew similarities exist between the grass roots gathering of petroleum When he died in 1967, Berkner held the rank of GSI establish a group of Texas laboratories to assist engineers and scientists in Texas a half-century ago and the 3,500 F Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy Reserve (USNR). in developing new seismic, electronic, mechanical members who form today’s IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing During the postwar years, Berkner served as a and electric products. iii He was an inventor and key Society. The one strikingly important consistency uniting the two, tireless advocate of scientific research and education. member of the scientific team at the renamed Texas however, is their timeless, collective objective of encouraging and pro - He was Head of the Section on Exploratory Geo - Instruments from 1951. Olson filed patents for TI moting the theory, concepts, and techniques of science and engineering physics of the Atmosphere at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie in the 1950s that made the Texas company a leader as they apply to the remote sensing of the Earth, oceans, atmosphere Institute from 1947 to 1951, and worked ceaselessly in the field of electric metering and the development and space, as well as the processing, interpretation and dissemination to foster better relations between the government of variable resistance distributed seismometers. of that information. and the scientific community. While at Carnegie Olson called for the first meeting of the G-GE The roots of IEEE’s Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society date Institute, he successfully proposed the United States to be held in Dallas on February 15, 1962. He in - back to the very early 1960s when the Group on Geoscience Electronics spearhead the International Geophysical Year for formed the 21 people in attendance that the main (G-GE) formed in 1961 as the 29 th technical group of the Institute of 1957-1958, due to the preponderance of sunspot purpose of the meeting involved the organization of Radio Engineers (IRE). activity that year. Berkner’s suggestion became the an Administrative Committee, which was almost Lloyd V. Berkner, then the President of both the IRE and the model for the great international programs in geo - immediately known among the group as the Ad - American Geophysical Union (AGU), and Robert W. Olson, a Vice physics that would follow the inaugural event of Com. Olson explained that the purpose of the Ad - Lloyd V. Berkner spearheaded the President of Texas Instruments Corp. in Dallas, Texas, convened a formation of G-GE. 1957-1958. Com would be to provide various management tasks, breakfast meeting of 20 people on April 20, 1961, at the Southwest Lloyd Berkner was so busy in life that he never including financial planning, budgeting, recruiting IRE Conference in Dallas. Most in attendance were engineers and sci - finished work on his doctorate. In 1961, he was the of members, establishing of a publication to be called entists in the growing petroleum industry in the U.S. Southwest. All President of the IRE and the Past President of the Transactions , selecting an editor for the publication, were using electro-seismic instruments, signal processing and seismic AGU. He was a member of the National Academy and setting technical directions. modeling in the never-ending search for oil and natural gas in the rich of Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences, the The IRE board had told Berkner the previous deposits of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. The United States was American Physical Society, the American Philosoph - year that the membership of the Group was too nar - still a petroleum-exporting nation in 1961, and scientific instrumenta - ical Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics row, and that G-GE needed to broaden its mem - tion was an increasingly important tool in assisting petroleum geologists Engineers, and a Fellow of the American Academy bership to include those whose fields of interest in - to find new fields and deposits. of Arts and Sciences. i When Berkner suggested to cluded oceanography and undersea technology and All at the meeting were in agreement that the field needed a forum the board of IRE that the Institute consider approv - instrumentation. Still, the Group’s first AdCom was in which potential members could share information and findings and ing the formation of G-GE, approval was quickly heavily weighted toward representation by Texas and gather on a formal basis with peers.