PORSEC Newsletter 7
October 8, 2006
Dear PORSEC Association Members!
It is now just 3 weeks before the Pan Ocean remote Sensing Conference of 2006.
We hope that many of you have made plans to participate. The final program will be on the web-site about October 14; http://porsec.nwra.com/ . The local program committee is finalizing it based on registrations and who sent in the full papers. (We are trying to avoid no-shows in the oral sessions.) I believe it will be a stimulating meeting and we will benefit from association with the Korean Society for Remote Sensing. Accessing the conference web-site for registration and hotel reservations should also work well now, but if you have any trouble feel free to send registration and hotel wishes to Dr. Kiwon Lee via kilee@hansung.ac.kr.
There will also be a Tsunami workshops and the PORSEC Scientific Organizing Committee meetings on Nov. 1, so plan your travel accordingly.
I append the information about the SPECIAL SESSIONS at the end, since much of it is a repeat from Newsletter 6 with minor changes. The two courses that were announced will take place, October 25-27 at the KARI in Dejeon. Pascal Lecomte of ESA is leading the teaching effort with Korean colleagues at KARI. The IOC of UNESCO is supporting 11 students from 7 different Asian countries to travel to Korea and attend the courses and the PORSEC Association is supporting their participation in the Conference Nov. 2-4. We are very pleased with this development and hope that the experience will be valuable for the future work of these students and young professional scientists.
MEMBERSHIP SITUATION:
Please help us keep up on the email contacts of our members. When you have a change in email, or know of another member whose email address has changed, please send a note to Dr. Gad Levy; gad@porsec.nwra.com. We appreciate hearing from members with ideas and comments.
FINANCES:
We have established the PORSEC Association as a non-profit entity in the State of Washington of the U.S.A. We can now obtain a US federal tax-free status as well and intend on doing so. We need some new financial resources for the PORSEC Association, since agency support is not as plentiful as we need. The plan is to approach foundations for support of the PORSEC course program, student scholarships for oceanographic and remote sensing research. We also need support for future workshops and scientific exchange initiatives. This year we were not able to pay for the travel of any invited speakers
MEMBERSHIP FEES: We encourage all members to pay their membership fee of $20 per year, $10 per year for students. These funds can be sent by check to our treasurer, W. Timothy Liu (if you have a U.S. bank account, if not, the cost of cashing a foreign check is too high for these sums�of the order of $10.) Tim�s address is given below. We hope that you work out a method to get the funds to us without cost. Eventually we should set up a credit card account for the PORSEC Association. We will be collecting membership fees at the conference in Busan, $40 for two years, ($20 for two years for students). You can pay in advance for more years if you wish. Donations are also gratefully accepted.
T-SHIRTS: We will have a few T-shirts with the PORSEC logo for sale at the conference and can take orders. This will not become a great source of revenue for the Association, unless the fashions change a lot, but it is fun! They are good looking and can promote the organization. They also make nice gifts for the folks at home.
An important meeting will be the Session on November 1 of the Scientific Organizing Committee, SOC, of the PORSEC Association to be held at Pukyong National University in Busan. We will discuss, and we hope to ratify, the Statues and By-Laws (please read and examine via the PORSEC Association home page). We will discuss future activities of PORSEC Association including the conference site for 2008 (There are a couple of organizations proposing to hold that conference.). We are not holding elections, but we need to start the process of nominations and we need members to become active in various committees. We should also vote on the publication venue of papers resulting from PORSEC 2006. All members of the PORSEC Association are encouraged to attend the SOC meeting as observers and get involved.
Hoping to see many members of the PORSEC Association in Busan!
Yours,
Kristina Katsaros—
President of PORSEC Association
Vice President: Antony Liu, LiuA@onrasia.navy.mil
Treasurer: W. Timothy Liu, W.Timothy.Liu@jpl.nasa.gov,
Jet Propulsion Lab. 300-323 , 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, CA 91109-8099, U.S.A.,
Tel:818-354-2394, Fax:818-393-6720——- http://airsea-www.jpl.nasa.gov
Executive Secretary: Gad Levy, gad@porsec.nwra.com
Past President: Yasuhiro Sugimori , sugimoriy@nifty.com
Past Vice �Presidents : Ming-Xia He, Z. S. Liu, James Gower,
PORSEC Association Committee–Chairs:
Publications: Bill Emery
Awards: Mal Heron
Elections: Jose Stuardo
Program: Local Organizing Committee for PORSEC 2006, Busan, Korea is lead by:
Dr Yeong-Sup Kim and Dr. Young- Cheul Suh (both of Pukyong National University
Dr. Hong-Joo Yoon is the person behind the invitation to Korea for PORSEC 2006.
He chairs the overall program committee.
E-mail Addresses: yoonhj@pknu.ac.kr; kimys@metr.re.kr; assuh@kma.go.kr
(See further the list of members of the LOC in the PORSEC 2006 announcement on the web-page)
Dr. Kiwon Lee, kilee@hansung.ac.kr , representing Korean Society of Remote Sensing, is an important contact for the preparations
of ISRS 2006 PORSEC.
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SPECIAL SESSIONS at PORSEC 2006
Scientific Application of Active and Passive Microwave Sensors
Convener: W. Timothy Liu ( W.Timothy.Liu@jpl.nasa.gov)
QuikSCAT has provided global coverage of ocean surface wind/stress vectors and other terrestrial and cryospheric measurements since 1999. Data with improved spatial resolutions are being produced. Wind speeds measured by synthetic aperture radar and microwave radiometer have also been combined with other wind direction information to produce wind vector fields. Microwave radiometers (TMI and AMSR) on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and on Aqua have provided sea surface temperature under both clear and cloudy conditions, besides wind speed, water vapor and rain. Strong sensor and science synergism exist between the two kind of spacebased sensors. They complement each other in monitoring the momentum, energy, and water transport in the ocean and atmosphere, and exchanges between them. Results on the application of each sensor and in combination with other space-based sensors are welcome in this session
Ocean Color,
Convener: James Gower, (gowerJ@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca)
Satellite observations of water color (optical spectral reflectance) have now become a standard tool for studying oceans, coastal seas, estuaries and lakes. New applications for detecting and monitoring patterns of productivity and blooms of harmful and other algae are still being developed. The session will concentrate on observations of the west Pacific and eastern Indian Ocean, but relevant studies of any area are welcome.
Studies in the South China Sea
Conveners: Antony K. Liu (ONRG) and Kenji Hotta (Nihon University), (LiuA@onrasia.navy.mil)
The South China Sea is one of the most active marginal seas in the Southeast Asia. All studies in SCS are welcome to submit in this special session on activities in shpping, fisheries, naval and high-tech ocean exploration, remote sensing, modeling, and data assimilation. Recent field experiments in SCS have included ASIAEX (Asian Sea International Acoustics Experiment), NLIW (NonLinear Internal Waves) Initiative, Luzon Strait Experiment, and Spratlys Mapping Projects. Studies on remote sensing using SAR, LANDSAT, MODIS, SeaWiFS, SPOT, Altimetry, and QuikSCAT have provided many applications for ocean processes and environmental monitoring (e.g., waves, current, eddies, fronts, typhoons, ships, navigation, bathymetry, and red tides�). Results of all studies in the South China Sea are welcome in this special session, and hopefully can promote more future international collaboration.
Space Agency Contributions to Science and Development in Asia
Convener: K.Katsaros ( katsaros@porsec.nwra.com)
We are inviting the Space Agencies, who operate in the Asian region, which includes the large space agencies as well as emerging space agencies in Asia to present what they are doing now that is useful for the Scientific Research and Applications in Asia and also what is in the future. Countries that do not have their own space program to date are encouraged to contribute how they use remote sensing from the world�s satellite systems and what their needs are. This may be a full half day session or longer depending on the number on contributors and should include ample time for discussions. To date we have participation from the following people and agencies, Pascal Lecomte (ESA), W. Timothy Liu(NASA), Prof. H. Shimoda (JAXA), James Gower (on behalf of CSA), Dr. R. Navalgund, Space Application Centre, Ahemedabad, India. Korean and Chinese participants (not yet committed fully, but all three likely).
Tsunamis
Convener: Tom.Allan ( tom@satobsys.co.uk)
Following the tsunami disaster of Dec 26 2004, it has been suggested that it is appropriate to convene a Special Session on the potential contribution of satellites to future early warning systems which are presently planned around conventional “in situ” measurements. It is hoped that representatives of countries threatened by tsunamis will be able to participate. This is a session in the PORSEC 2006 program.
An Associated Workshop on Tsunami and Other Marine Hazards will take place on the day preceding day of the conference, that is on November 1.
Convener for the workshop is also Dr Tom Allan tom@satobsys.co.uk
At this stage the organizers remain flexible about the details of the presentation in the workshop, but papers should fall into 3 main categories:-
- i) Review of present status of the IOC programme
- ii) Potential contribution of satellite remote sensing
- a) To the detection of marine hazards including tsunamis
- b) To the longer-term research programmes
iii) An integrated approach how can countries/agencies work together?
We would like to encourage a wide range of individuals and organizations to participate in this discussion. The basic aim is to identify and evaluate the level of support satellites might provide to the networks of in situ sensors now being planned and installed by the IOC Regional Working Groups. This is an issue that must surely appeal to the community of marine remote sensors who for almost two decades analyzed and interpreted data from the many individual research missions launched to reveal details of ocean processes. It may be time to consider if and how that technology, developed and improved over the years, can now be exploited to forewarn of impending marine disasters in the shorter-term.
Oil Spill Monitoring
Conveners: Dr. Andrey Ivanov, Dr. Andrey Kostyanoy, Korean co-chair to be determined.
Several Russian scientists among them Dr. Andrey Ivanov, Dr. Andrey Kostyanoy, Dr. Konstantin Litovchenko will report on studies of oil spill detection and statistical characteristics by remote sensing in the Asian marginal seas. Oil spill monitoring is very attractive for application of remote techniques. Please visit a web site, http://cearac.poi.dvo.ru , where there are many SAR images of the Japan/East Sea, Yellow Sea and in the East-China Sea showing oil spills.