LARS Newsletter

October/November 1996

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ENGEL APPOINTED ACTING DIRECTOR

Dr. Bernie Engel, Professor of Agricultural & Biological Engineering has been appointed Acting Director of LARS while Chris Johannsen is on sabbatical leave. Engel's research interests are Agricultural Expert Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Simulation of Agricultural Systems, Natural Resource Conservation and Management and Geographical Information Systems.

SABBATICAL REACTIONS

Life is interesting in a new location from a personal and professional standpoint. We live in Boulder in a condo (owner is in Arizona) with an excellent view of the Rocky Mountains. I drive 25 miles to Thornton to work each day which is a lot different from 2.5 miles that I drove in West Lafayette! I am a Visiting Chief Scientist with Space Imaging Inc. (SII as they call themselves). SII will be launching a satellite in 1997 with 1 m panchromatic and 4 m digital data and has recently purchased EOSAT.

My efforts are to look for researchable topics in agriculture and natural resources - brings to mind the "like a kid in a candy store". The list of researchable topics is growing. There are currently three graduate students who are interning at SII: Judith Berglund, Geological Sciences, University of Texas at Austin; Doug Henderson, Geological Sciences, University of Texas at Austin and Brian Coffey, Forestry, Colorado State University (Major Professor: Dr. Roger Hoffer).

I admit to being concerned whether we are providing the proper preparation of our Graduate Students for positions in industry. We do a good job of preparing people to do research and work in an academic environment. Industry is different. People ask questions of me and wait until I give them an answer. At the University, I usually talk to other faculty, challenge graduate students or even a class with the question, check the library and reference notes and maybe a week later provide the answer. We tried very hard to have the "right" answer the first time. In industry, there is not time to wait on the answer. Your worth is measured as being acceptable if you are right more times than you are wrong. Industrial internships are about the only way for students to get the flavor of what is expected of them with industry. I will be more aware of this when I teach my classes in the future.

SPACE IMAGING PURCHASES EOSAT

Space Imaging and Lockheed Martin announced on November 5 that they have reached an agreement concerning the purchase of EOSAT, a Lockheed Martin company, by Space Imaging. Under the terms of the agreement, Space Imaging will acquire all of the assets of EOSAT through a new subsidiary - Space Imaging, the Earth Observation Satellite Co. (SII/EOSAT), which will maintain the existing distribution agreements EOSAT has with its global satellite imagery suppliers. These include agreements to distribute Landsat imagery as well as exclusive agreements with the ANTRIX Corp. Ltd. of India, the commercial marketing arm of the Indian Space Research Organization, to distribute its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite imagery - the best of which provides 5.8-meter resolution imagery today. (Resolution refers to the size of the smallest object that can be seen in an image.)

NEWS FROM WORSTELL AT EROS

Bruce Worstell, MS Agronomy, has returned to the EROS Data Center (EDC) for a second student internship. He is a member of a group at EDC studying the impact of erosion and sedimentation on the global carbon balance. The overall project consists of an interdisciplinary team of scientists led by Dr. Eric Sundquist, USGS Water Resources Division. The EROS Data Center group, led by Dr. Norman Bliss, will focus on the characterization of watersheds in the Mississippi basin using soil, climate, land cover, and terrain information and link these data with previously collected sedimentation data. The goal of this research is to investigate the extent of carbon sequestration from erosion and sedimentation.

WORKSHOPS ATTENDED

Marion Baumgardner attended the National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive Workshop on November 11-13 at the EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, SD.

Larry Biehl and Chris J. Johannsen attended the Remote Sensing Science for Agriculture in the 21st Century Workshop, University of California, Davis, CA, October 23-25. Biehl chaired a Discussion Session on "Data Analysis and Priority Science Issues" and Johannsen presented a paper on "Information Requirements for Agriculture: The Next Decade". Other LARSians in attendance where Marv Bauer,(1970 to 1983) University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN; Jon Ranson, (1980 to 1986), Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD; Craig Daughtry, (1976 to 1987), Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD; John Grace, (Ph.D. 1992), Resource21, Gulfport, MS; Roger Hoffer (1966 to 1988), Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO; and Vern Vanderbilt (1969 to 1985), NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. The group met at a LARS Luncheon along with Jim Irons (Penn State University) who completed his Ph.D. with Dick Weismiller. John Ahlrichs, (MS, 1978) was also in attendance but could not make the luncheon.

PAPERS PRESENTED

At the American Society of Agronomy Meetings, Indianapolis (Nov 4-7, 1996):
E. Micheli, B. Madari, M. F. Baumgardner, T. Helt "Incorporating a Global Perspective into the Agronomy Curriculum"

I. Bayramin, B. Worstell, M.F. Baumgardner. "Integrating AVHRR Data and Digital Elevation Model for Small Scale Soil Mapping"

E.O Velipasaoglu, I. Bayramin, M.F. Baumgardner, O.K. Ersoy. "Neural Network Approach for Small Scale Soil Mapping"

C.W. Ahn, M.F. Baumgardner, L.L. Biehl. "Soil Mapping with the Aid of Hyperspectral Imagery, Geostatistics, and Fuzzy Clustering Analyses"

B.B. Worstell, M.F. Baumgardner, N.B. Bliss. "Integrating Soil and DEM Data for Developing a Small-Scale Soil and Terrain (SOTER) Database"

E. Dobos, T. Helt, E. Micheli, M.F. Baumgardner, C. J. Johannsen. "A Method for Remote Sensing, Soil and Terrain Data Integration"

Baumgardner and Johannsen were also co-authors on other papers relating to Soil Science History.

Jack Estes, University of California - Santa Barbara and Gary Johnson, Consortium for International Earth Sciences Information Network (CIESIN) presented papers at a Special Symposium on Decision Support Systems for feeding 10-15 Billion People in the 21st Century.

AWARDS

Professor Marion F. Baumgardner was presented the International Soil Science Award, Soil Science Society of America on November 5, 1996 for his outstanding work in research and teaching relating to remote sensing, soil information systems and development of international programs including the Godollo Agricultural/Purdue University Partnership. Congratulations Baumy on a well deserved award!

CONFERENCES/WORKSHOP DATES

(* = New listing)

Please note that we are not repeating conferences/workshops mentioned in previous newsletters except those of Professional Societies/organizations that appear to be of special interest to our faculty/students.

1996:
+Dec 2. Your Business & Satellite Imagery, Orlando, FL, SPOT Image Corp., (703) 715-3100, Fax: (303) 648-1813.

*+Dec 2. Your Business & Satellite Imagery, San Jose, CA, SPOT Image Corp., (703) 715-3100, Fax: (303) 648-1813.

*+Dec 3. Your Business & Satellite Imagery, San Francisco, CA, SPOT Image Corp., (703) 715-3100, Fax: (303) 648-1813.

*+Dec 3. Your Business & Satellite Imagery, Miami, FL, SPOT Image Corp., (703) 715-3100, Fax: (303) 648-1813.

*+Dec 4. Your Business & Satellite Imagery, Portland, OR, SPOT Image Corp., (703) 715-3100, Fax: (303) 648-1813.

+Dec 11-13, SoFor GIS '96, Univ. of Georgia, Athens, Georgia. Contact: fax 706-542-6645.

1997:
*+Jan 14. Your Business & Satellite Imagery, St. Louis, MO, SPOT Image Corp., (703) 715-3100, Fax: (303) 648-1813.

*+Jan 24. Your Business & Satellite Imagery, Boston, MA, SPOT Image Corp., (703) 715-3100, Fax: (303) 648-1813.

+Jan 26-30. Space Technology & Applications International Forum (STAIF-97). NASA et.al, Albuquerque, NM. Contact: Prof Mohamed S. El-Genk, Uni of New Mexico, (505) 277-5442, Fax: 277-2814, Email: mgenk@unm.edu

*+Jan 27-31. InterCarto 3: GIS for Environmentally Sustainable Development Conference and Exhibition, Novosibirsk, Russia. 7 3832 20 57 22, Fax: 7 3832 20 56 74

*+Jan 27. Your Business & Satellite Imagery, Minneapolis, MN, SPOT Image Corp., (703) 715-3100, Fax: (303) 648-1813

*+Feb 3. Your Business & Satellite Imagery, Austin, TX, SPOT Image Corp., (703) 715-3100, Fax: (303) 648-1813.

*+Feb 5. Your Business & Satellite Imagery, Phoenix, AZ, SPOT Image Corp., (703) 715-3100, Fax: (303) 648-1813.

*+Feb 6-9 "Camera and Digital Photogrammetry Seminar, Aspen, CO, Carl Zeiss. (303) 799-6838. anke@czi.com

*+Feb 7. Your Business & Satellite Imagery, Denver, CO, SPOT Image Corp., (703) 715-3100, Fax: (303) 648-1813.

+Feb 9-14. Electronic Imaging: Science and Technology, IS&T and SPIE, San Jose, CA. Contact: 703-642-9090 Ext. 10.

*+Feb 17. "Integrating Spatial Information Technologies for Tomorrow, Vancouver, Canada, GIS World. (970) 223-4848, Fax: 223-5700; evebt_ingo@gisworld.com

+Mar 17-19. Fourth International Conference on Remote Sensing for Marine & Coastal Environments: Technology and Applications. ERIM, Orlando, FL. Contact: raeder@erim.org, Web: http://www.erim.org/CONF/conf.html

+Mar 21-27. AM/FM International Annual Conference, AM/FM International, San Antonio, Texas. Contact: Paula Delie 303-337-0513

+Apr 1-5. Association of American Geographers Annual Mtg., AAG, Fort Worth, TX. Contact 202-234-1450, Fax: 234-2744, gaia@aag.org. Web: http://www.aag.org

+Apr 4-6. ASPRS/ACSM Annual Convention. ASPRS, ACSM, Seattle, Washington. Contact: 301-493-0200

+Apr 7-10. Geospatial Information Age--1997 ACSM/ASPRS Annual Convention and Exhibition, Resource Technology Institute Annual Conference, Auto Carto 13, Seattle, WA. 301-493-0200; lhachero@aol.com; or autoc13@u.washington.edu; http://weber.u.washington.edu/~autoc13/

+Apr 29-1 May, ASPRS 16th Biennial Workshop on Color Photography and Videography in Resource Assessment, Weslaco, TX. Gerald Anderson, 210-969-4834, gl-anderson@tamu.edu; http://rsru2.tamu.edu/rsru/workshop/workshop.htm

+May 26-29. GIS AM/FM '97 and Geo-informations '97, Chinese Geographic Information Society, Taipei, Taiwan. Contact: Web: http://www.jglay@ccms.ntu.edu.tw

*+June 23-27. 18th ICA/ACI intn'l Cartographic Conference, Stockholm, Sweden. Fax: 46 26 65 31 60 bengtr@lmv.lm.se Web: http://www.lm.se/icc97.html

+July 7-10. Third International Airborne Remote Sensing Conference and Exhibition, ERIM, Copenhagen, Denmark. Contact: 313-994-1200, ext. 3234, Fax: 994-51123. wallman@erim.org. Deadline for Call for Papers: December 13, 1996.

+Jul 7-10. IGARSS '97. Cannes, France. Contact: 703-917-8655; fax 703-917-8656; khazenie@chrpisis.gsfc.nasa.gov

+July 7-11. Seventeenth Annual ESRI User Conference. San Diego, CA. Contact: www.esri.com; uc97@esri.com; 909-793-2853 ext. 1-1363

*+Sep 8-10. First European Conference on Precision Agriculture, Coventry, United Kingdom. Contact: SCI Conference Department, 14/15 Belgrave Square, London SW1 8PS, United Kingdom, 144 171 235 3681, fax 144 171 235 7743, e-mail conferences@chemind.demon.co.uk, Internet http://www.sri.bbsrc.ac.uk/.

+Sept 22-26, 46th Photogrammetric Week, Zeiss, Stuttgart, Germany. Contact: 49-711-121-3201; fax 49-711-121-3297.

--Bernard Engel, Acting Director & Chris J. Johannsen*, Director
  Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing (LARS)
  1158 ENTM 220, Purdue University,
  W. Lafayette, IN 47907-1158, USA
  (317) 494-6305, Fax: (317) 494-7753
  engelb@ecn.purdue.edu    johannsn@ecn.purdue.edu
Homepage: http://dynamo.ecn.purdue.edu/~biehl/LARS/
*Currently Visiting Chief Scientist, Space Imaging Inc., Thornton, CO
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