http://www.grss-ieee.org/menu.taf?menu=Publications&detail=newsletter Editor: Lorenzo Bruzzone Cumulative Issue #159 June 2011 ISSN 0274-6338 Table of Contents IEEE GRSS AdCom, Officers and Committee Chairs ............................2 Newsletter Input and Deadlines Editor’s Comments .................................3 The following is the schedule for the GRSS Newsletter. If you would like to contribute an article, President’s Message ............................... 3 please submit your input according to this schedule. Input is preferred in Microsoft Word, Word- AdCom Members ..................................5 Perfect or ASCII for IBM format (please send disk and hard copy) as IEEE now uses electronic Chapters and Contact Information ..........6 publishing. Other word processing formats, including those for Macintosh, are also acceptable, however, please be sure to identify the format on the disk and include the hard copy. GRSS MEMBER HIGHLIGHTS GRSS Members Elevated to the GRSS Newsletter Schedule Grade of Senior Member in Month June Sept Dec March March and April 2011 ...........................7 Input April 15 July 15 Oct 15 Jan 15 FEATURES Classification Accuracy Assessment ......... 8 IEEE GRSS AdCom, Officers and Committee Failing as chance – Negative results in Geoscience & Remote Sensing .......... 15 Chairs – 2011 GRS-29 (Division IX) President Fellow Evaluation Committee IGARSS 2010 BOOK REVIEW Jon A. Benediktsson Ya-Qiu Jin Paul Smits Optical Remote Sensing – Advances Executive Vice President Fellow and Senior Member Karen M. St. Germain in Signal Processing and Melba M. Crawford Search IGARSS 2011 Exploitation Techniques ......................... 17 Vice President for Mahta Moghaddam Motoyuki Sato Information Resources History and Records IGARSS 2012 REPORTS Steven C. Reising Werner Wiesbeck Alberto Moreira 2010 TGRS Best Reviewers ................... 19 Vice President for Meetings Latin American Activities Yves-Louis Desnos 2010 JSTARS Best Reviewers ................. 19 and Symposia Sonia Gallegos IGARSS 2013 2010 GRSL Best Reviewers ................... 20 Adrian Camps Chuck Luther Peter Woodgate Vice President for Technical Membership IGARSS 2014 2011 Joint Urban Activities Shannon Brown Monique Bernier Remote Sensing Event (2011 JURSE) ..... 20 John Kerekes Nominations Chair 2011 AdCom Members Vice President for Leung Tsang Lorenzo Bruzzone TECHNICAL COMMITTEES CORNER Professional Activities PACE Kuan Shan Chen Data Archiving and Distribution (DAD) Kamal Sarabandi Paul Racette Melba M. Crawford Technical Committee (TC) ......................23 Vice President for Public Relations/Publicity Ya-Qiu Jin Publications David Weissman Steven C. Reising CHAPTERS CORNER Wooil Moon Shannon Brown Karen St. Germain GRSS Distinguished Speakers Secretary Soc. Implications 2012 AdCom Members Program .............................................. 27 Thomas J. Jackson Technology Rep. Adriano Camps Director of Finance R. Keith Raney John Kerekes UNIVERSITY PROFILE James A. Gatlin Specialty Symposia David Kunkee Microwave Remote Sensing Research and Director of Education Motoyuki Sato David M. LeVine Education at Center for Environmental Antonio Plaza David B. Kunkee Wooil M. Moon Remote Sensing, Chiba University ......... 32 Director of Corporate Standards and Metrics Shannon Brown Relations Siri Jodha Singh Khalsa 2013 AdCom Members INDUSTRIAL PROFILE William B. Gail Strategic Planning Jon A. Benediktsson Plans for the Evaluation of ATMS Major Awards Andrew Blanchard William J. Emery and CrIS data at ECMWF .....................39 Werner Wiesbeck Melba M. Crawford Michael Inggs Publications Awards Student Paper Contest Mahta Moghaddam CALL FOR PAPERS ...................... 43 Martti Hallikainen Martti Hallikainen Kamal Sarabandi Asian Activities Web Editor Motoyuki Sato UPCOMING CONFERENCES ........ 51 Motoyuki Sato, Kuan Shan Bill Blackwell Past Presidents Chen, Wolfgang-Martin Transactions Editor Anthony K. Milne Boerner Christopher Ruf Alberto Moreira Chapter Activities Letters Editor Honorary Life Members Notice to Potential Kuan Shan Chen Paolo Gamba Andrew Blanchard Conference Advisory J-STARS Editor Keith R. Carver Advertisers Committee Jocelyn Chanussot Martti Hallikainen The IEEE GRSS Newsletter publishes paid Michael Inggs, John Kerekes Ellsworth LeDrew Kiyo Tomiyasu advertisements for job openings, short Constitution and Bylaws Newsletter Editor Fawwaz T. Ulaby courses, products, and services which are of Melba M. Crawford Lorenzo Bruzzone Werner Wiesbeck interest to the GRSS membership. 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 (included in Society fee) for each member of the Geoscience and Remote Sensing Soc.. Printed in U.S.A. Periodicals Ms. Susan Schneiderman postage paid at New York, NY and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to IEEE Business Development Manager Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society Newsletter, IEEE, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854. IEEE Tech Societies Media © 2011 IEEE. Permission to copy without fee all or part of any material without a copyright notice is 445 Hoes Lane granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, and the Piscataway, NJ 08854-1331 title of the publication and its date appear on each copy. To copy material with a copyright notice requires special permission. Please direct all inquiries or requests to the IEEE Copyrights Manager. Tel: +1 732-562-3946 IEEE Customer Service Phone: +1 732 981 1393, Fax: +1 732 981 9667. Fax: +1 732-981-1855 IEEE prohibits discrimination, harassment, and bullying. www.ieee.org/ieeemedia For more information, visit http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/whatis/policies/p9-26.html. 2 IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society Newsletter • June 2011 Editor’s Comments which is related to the validation of classification results. Even though the article focuses on the specific problem of the analy- Dr. Lorenzo Bruzzone, Editor sis of classification results, many of the issues discussed are of University of Trento broader interest and are relevant for many different domains of Department of Information Engineering remote sensing data analysis. The issues of validation and of and Computer Science the definition of reliable, standardized and robust protocols for Via Sommarive 14 accuracy assessment are often overlooked, with potentially dra- I-38123 Povo, Trento ITALY matic implications on the quality of the products generated by Phone: +39 0461 282056 remote sensing. This, in turn, has negative effects on the cred- Email: [email protected] ibility of remote sensing results in operational applications. The second feature article addresses the issue of the final goal of a scientific/technical article from an original perspective. The This issue of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing authors point out the problems of dissemination to the scientific Newsletter is the first after the earthquake and tsunami that community not only the successful results associated with novel affected Japan in March 2011. This was a terrible disaster that algorithms, systems, and applications, but also the failures that strongly affected our Japanese friends and colleagues. Our are a necessary part of research activities. The message of the prayers and thoughts are with them. I am sure they will be paper is that in selected cases disseminating the negative results able to recover quickly from this tragedy. obtained in the practical development of very promising ideas In this issue we have many interesting contributions deal- can enrich the scientific community and avoid other research- ing with both scientific and technical topics of remote sens- ers’ efforts to study promising directions that other colleagues ing, as well as with the activities of the IEEE Geoscience and already identified as ineffective. I am sure that this short article Remote Sensing Society (GRSS). will stimulate discussion on this relevant issue. The Features section includes two main contributions. The The Book Review column presents an overview of Opti- first article is a tutorial paper on accuracy assessment in the cal Remote Sensing – Advances in Signal Processing and classification of remote sensing images. The article addresses a very important problem in the analysis of remote sensing data, (continued on page 4) President’s Message conference in Sendai, Japan. However, because of the terrible earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan, the Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) and the IGARSS 2011 Local Organization Committee (LOC) jointly decided to Dr. Jon Atli Benediktsson move IGARSS 2011 to Vancouver. This was a very difficult University of Iceland decision for both the GRSS and the LOC that had worked so Main Building, Sæmundargata 2 hard in the preparations for IGARSS 2011 in Sendai under the 101 Reykjavik, Iceland outstanding leadership of Motoyuki Sato. All of us were very Phone: +354 525 4047 Email: [email protected] much looking forward to the conference in Sendai. It was not possible due to the terrible tragedy the Japanese nation has endured. Our greatest sympathy goes to the Japanese people, and we very much admire their