Remote Sensing & IGARSSA Look Back, A Look AheadKaren St.GermainWith Significant Contributions From:Paul Smits, David Kunkee, David Glackin, Steffan Fritz,Chris Roelfsema, Stuart Phinn & Liam GumleyJuly 20101
The Early Years – G-GEA small society called the Geoscience Electronics Group (G-GE) had formed and was busy broadening its scope
From 1961 to 1964 the society grew from its early emphasis on seismic activity
In 1964 established the first journal dedicated to natural phenomena and the electronic instrumentation to measure them
“Transactions on Geoscience Electronics”
By November 1968, the society was poised again to expand its scope through a call to arms – lead article entitled “Oceanographic Instrumentation: A Crisis of National Neglect,” by Harvey D. Kushner
Having established a presence in the fields of geophysics and oceanography, the society quickly moved into meteorology
By 1969, the young society was ready to plan its first Symposium and the predecessor of IGARSS came into existence (held annually for 3 years)
376 Attendees
63 Papers
13 Technical Sessions covering oceanographic and meteorological remote sensing, seismology instrumentation, and environmental polution
The society expanded its scope one more time in 1973 to include data processing techniques, pattern recognition, and physics of underlying phenomenlogy2
The Early Years: NIMBUS3At the same time, the NIMBUS program was developing new experimental techniques for weather observation
Nimbus 5 (December 1972) and Nimbus 6 (June 1975) launched two microwave instruments
Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer (ESMR) for mapping the microwave radiation from the earth's surface and atmosphere (PI Dr. Thomas Wilheit)
Microwave Spectrometer (NEMS) for measuring tropospheric temperature profiles, water vapor, cloud liquid water and surface temperature (PI Dr. David Staelin)
Nimbus 7 (October 1978)launched the first Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) for sea surface temperature and near-surface (PI Dr. Per Gloerson)Mid-1970s: Microwaves Get Traction!!!The success of the NIMBUS program and a few early Skylab experiments indicate that there is a way to get a global view of the oceans
Everyonewants in on the action and a Users Working Group was established
The Navy (Office of the Oceanographer, Fleet Numerical, Navy Surface Weapons, Naval Research Lab, Office of Naval Research, and the Navy/NOAA Joint Ice Center)
NOAA (Atlantic Oceanic Marine Lab, Weather Center, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Marine Fisheries
Defense Mapping Agency
US Geological Survey

WE4.L10.1: OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL DATA IN 2010: CONNECTING GLOBAL AND LOCAL OBSERVATIONS

  • 1.
    Remote Sensing &IGARSSA Look Back, A Look AheadKaren St.GermainWith Significant Contributions From:Paul Smits, David Kunkee, David Glackin, Steffan Fritz,Chris Roelfsema, Stuart Phinn & Liam GumleyJuly 20101
  • 2.
    The Early Years– G-GEA small society called the Geoscience Electronics Group (G-GE) had formed and was busy broadening its scope
  • 3.
    From 1961 to1964 the society grew from its early emphasis on seismic activity
  • 4.
    In 1964 establishedthe first journal dedicated to natural phenomena and the electronic instrumentation to measure them
  • 5.
  • 6.
    By November 1968,the society was poised again to expand its scope through a call to arms – lead article entitled “Oceanographic Instrumentation: A Crisis of National Neglect,” by Harvey D. Kushner
  • 7.
    Having established apresence in the fields of geophysics and oceanography, the society quickly moved into meteorology
  • 8.
    By 1969, theyoung society was ready to plan its first Symposium and the predecessor of IGARSS came into existence (held annually for 3 years)
  • 9.
  • 10.
  • 11.
    13 Technical Sessionscovering oceanographic and meteorological remote sensing, seismology instrumentation, and environmental polution
  • 12.
    The society expandedits scope one more time in 1973 to include data processing techniques, pattern recognition, and physics of underlying phenomenlogy2
  • 13.
    The Early Years:NIMBUS3At the same time, the NIMBUS program was developing new experimental techniques for weather observation
  • 14.
    Nimbus 5 (December1972) and Nimbus 6 (June 1975) launched two microwave instruments
  • 15.
    Electrically Scanning MicrowaveRadiometer (ESMR) for mapping the microwave radiation from the earth's surface and atmosphere (PI Dr. Thomas Wilheit)
  • 16.
    Microwave Spectrometer (NEMS)for measuring tropospheric temperature profiles, water vapor, cloud liquid water and surface temperature (PI Dr. David Staelin)
  • 17.
    Nimbus 7 (October1978)launched the first Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) for sea surface temperature and near-surface (PI Dr. Per Gloerson)Mid-1970s: Microwaves Get Traction!!!The success of the NIMBUS program and a few early Skylab experiments indicate that there is a way to get a global view of the oceans
  • 18.
    Everyonewants in onthe action and a Users Working Group was established
  • 19.
    The Navy (Officeof the Oceanographer, Fleet Numerical, Navy Surface Weapons, Naval Research Lab, Office of Naval Research, and the Navy/NOAA Joint Ice Center)
  • 20.
    NOAA (Atlantic OceanicMarine Lab, Weather Center, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Marine Fisheries
  • 21.
  • 22.
  • 23.
  • 24.
    The Department ofthe Interior
  • 25.
    Commercial Interests (shipping,fishing, mining, oil, and gas)
  • 26.
    Requirements were developedand SeaSat – a NASA/JPL demonstration mission, was born4
  • 27.
    SeaSat – AMicrowave MissionScanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) – 6.6, 10.7, 18, 21, and 37 GHz
  • 28.
  • 29.
  • 30.
  • 31.
  • 32.
  • 33.
    Ocean Wind Speedand Direction
  • 34.
    Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR) – 1.275 GHz
  • 35.
    Ocean Surface Imagery(wave patterns)
  • 36.
  • 37.
    Coastal Region andLand Imagery
  • 38.
  • 39.
  • 40.
    June 26, 1978Seasatwas to provide the first truly global view of the World Oceans5
  • 41.
    SeaSat – AMicrowave MissionAfter a glorious 3 ½ months on orbit
  • 42.
    Catastrophic failure ofthe electronic power system
  • 43.
    BUT Seasat provideda wealth of data
  • 44.
    SASS demonstrated thecapabilities of a scatterometer to measure ocean winds
  • 45.
    ALT and itspredecessors demonstrated the capability of spaceborne altimeters to observe the global marine geoid
  • 46.
    SAR demonstrated theunique potential to provide information about the health of the planet and its biodiversity
  • 47.
    SMMR demonstrated theability of scanning microwave radiometers to provide a wealth of ocean surface, land surface, and atmosphere productsIn its short life, Seasat demonstrated that a global view was possible6
  • 48.
    Meanwhile back atthe G-GE7In 1979, the Administrative Committee voted
  • 49.
    Change the nameof G-GE to the Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS)
  • 50.
    Change the nameof the journal to Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
  • 51.
    This change wasdriven by FawwazUlaby, then a new member of the AdCom, in recognition of the strong linkage between the various geoscientific disciplines and the powerful techniques of remote sensing
  • 52.
    Remote sensing wasbroadly defined to include space borne & airborne observations, as well as seismic recording devices and sonar ocean floor mappers
  • 53.
    In 1980, nowGRSS President FawwazUlaby proposed reinstating the annual symposium called IGARSS
  • 54.
    Held in WashingtonDC, June 8-10, 1981
  • 55.
  • 56.
    Sponsor sessions inall of the technical areas of interest to the society
  • 57.
    In an effortto drive the international participation, IGARSS’82 was held in Munich, and the attendance held at 359IGARSS in the 1980sIn 1981, there were 2 full sessions dedicated to the SMMR on Nimbus-7 (launched October 1978, just as Seasat failed)
  • 58.
    Throughout the 80’sIGARSS was propelling the community toward the operational viability of the capabilities demonstrated by Seasat and its predecessors
  • 59.
    In 1985, theNavy launched Geosat – the follow-on to ALT
  • 60.
    In 1987, theAir Force launched SSM/I – the follow-on to SMMR
  • 61.
    In 1991, theEuropean Space Agency launched ERS-1 – the follow-on to SASS
  • 62.
    Between 1985 and1995, no fewer than 7 Synthetic Aperature Radar missions were launched – all following on the Seasat SAR
  • 63.
    By the timeVince Salomonson welcomed attendees to IGARSS 1990, the society had a full blown success on their hands
  • 64.
    Grown to 10parallel sessions over 4 days
  • 65.
    Covering topics frominstrumentationtechniques, to atmospheric observations, to early Global Change papers
  • 66.
    Increasing focus onroutine production of global data products, supporting both operational and science missions8
  • 67.
    The Second Decadeof IGARSS ushers in new operational capabilities and the advent of continuous global dataIn 1990, Remote Sensing was still largely a government led and funded activity
  • 68.
    The 90s usheredin a broader focus within IGARSS
  • 69.
    The emergence ofRemote Sensing as a tool for National/International Policy –making
  • 70.
    NASA once againpushed the state of the art with its Earth Observing System1998: NASA Earth Observing System Launches Terra !9
  • 71.
    IGARSS 2000Plenary SessionSpeakers announced the critical role of remote sensing in enforcing the Kyoto Protocol
  • 72.
    A new rolefor Remote Sensing
  • 73.
    The MODIS instrumenton EOS Terra storms onto the IGARSS stage10
  • 74.
    Relationship of RemoteSensing to “Ground Truth” & Campaigns11Throughout the first 35 years of the field, Remote Sensing measurements were compared to in situ measurements
  • 75.
    The bias towardbelieving that which we can put our hands on is evident in our choice of language “Ground Truth”GraduateStudentAnd, of course…
  • 76.
  • 77.
    AMSR brings lowfrequency radiometry back into the forefront
  • 78.
    2003: WindSat onCoriolis Launch !
  • 79.
    First space bornedemonstration of wind vector capability from passive microwave
  • 80.
    Rapid increase ininternet capacity and data standardization through GIS enables new approaches to data sharing
  • 81.
  • 82.
    2007: First Iphoneintroduced2010 and Beyond: Citizen Scientists Add a New Dimension!13Growth in Citizen Science interest increases available “work force”
  • 83.
    Smartphones enable datacollection & upload
  • 84.
  • 85.
    Digital photography enablesinexpensive “truth” data
  • 86.
  • 87.
    250 Terabytes ofhigh resolution images received from Earth Observation Satellites each day in 2009
  • 88.
    1.18 billion mobilecell phones sold worldwide in 2008
  • 89.
    400 million downloadsof Google Earth – users contribute geospatial information
  • 90.
    Sensors of alltypes are being integrated in garments and mobile units are commercially available
  • 91.
  • 92.
  • 93.
  • 94.
  • 95.
  • 96.
    Noise Level14Coral ReefHabitat Mapping: Enabling Community Mapping and Monitoring Dr. Chris Roelfsema and Prof. Stuart Phinn, University of QueenslandNeed: Map coral reef habitats with high spatial resolution imagery and detailed field data.The challenge:Need for calibration &validation data; as coral reefs are remote, wet and cover large areas, so field data collection is challenging.Part of the solution:- Georeferenced photo snorkel/dive transect method - Assistance needs to be provided to communities to build data collection and analysis1 km
  • 97.
    15Coral Reef HabitatMappingTraining in: field data collection & analysis, to volunteers, rangers, students, researchers, technicians & dive instructors
  • 98.
    image processing tolocally based remote sensing techniciansOutcomes for user & community: Capacity building & ownership
  • 99.
    Assessment ofimagery + habitat map overlaid with georeferenced photosImagery and photo transectsHabitat map
  • 100.
    GEO-Wiki16Dr. Steffen Fritz,International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) Volunteers view both cropland and forest disagreement maps derived from three recent global land cover datasets GLC-2000, MODIS and GlobCover
  • 101.
    Selectand visualize high resolution images with Google Earth & upload or view geo-tagged field pictures (e.g., from Panoramio.com, Confluence.org)
  • 102.
    Determinewhich land cover type is found on the ground and decide which dataset is correct1.Go to: igarss.geo-wiki.org2.3..17– For Official Use Only – Predecisional, Deliberative Information - Not for Public Release
  • 103.
    SatCam application foriPhoneDr. Liam Gumley, Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-MadisonSatCam allows the user community to take part in satellite cloud product validation by collecting coordinated sky, ground, and space observations.
  • 104.
  • 105.
    Globo AmazoniaA Projectby TV Globo, the largest network in Brazilwww.globoamazonia.com41 million reports in 3 months500,000 downloads of Orkut applicationIllegal Logging
  • 106.
    Globo Amazonia: RealimpactSenator uses evidence provided by Internet protestors to put forward legislation
  • 107.
    DiscussionWhat will thenext 10 years bring ???
  • 108.
    Boom of microsatellites
  • 109.
    Commercial Earth observingcapacity increases dramatically
  • 110.
    Governments change theirroles from actively contributing to the EO capacity to overseeing and safeguarding the space infrastructures
  • 111.
    Near-real time accessto space and in-situ sensor data for scientists and public alike
  • 112.
    Gaming industry takeson the VGI and Community Remote Sensing challenge22