AmericaView Blog

Introducing Laramie Junior High School Students to Remote Sensing Concepts and Applications

2012-04-27T06:49:00.000-07:00

One hundred and fourteen students in Ron Whitman’s eight grade physical and seventh grade biological sciences classes (three class periods each on April 4^th and 5^th, 2012) learned how remotely sensed images are acquired in different regions of the electromagnetic radiation (EMR) and their uses for monitoring earth surface features such as trees, crops, bare ground, water, roads, buildings, etc.

WyomingView coordinator Ramesh Sivanpillai described the differences in the interaction of earth surface features with EMR, and how those interactions result in their appearances or colors. Students learned the uses of images collected by satellites and airplanes for monitoring the effects of beetle attacks on pine trees, deforestation, crop growth, and changes in the surface areas of lakes and reservoirs. Mr. Whitman commented that the presentation helped “students understand the use of different electromagnetic waves for practical applications.”

In the lab, students working in teams used ALTA ™ Spectrometers to measure spectral reflectance in 10 different regions of EMR. Next, they calculated percent reflectance values, which were then plotted against wavelength to generate the spectral signature for each leaf. Analyses of these signatures led the students to conclude that the spectral signature of each leaf was distinct.

Hands-on lab component for measuring and calculating “percent reflectance of the four types of leaves at different wavelengths, actively engaged the students the entire lab time” Mr. Whitman said. Sivanpillai explained the differences in the spectral signatures of different earth surface features and remote sensing scientists rely on these signatures for mapping those features.

This educational outreach activity was conducted as part of AmericaView’s Earth Observation Day activities aimed at introducing teachers and students to remote sensing science and applications.

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Using satellite images, 5th and 6th grade students in a Laramie (WY) School learn about human impact on environment

2012-03-10T06:52:00.000-08:00

With the help of satellite images fifth and sixth grade students at Mr. Tim Blum’s geography class (photo below) at the UW Lab School got a birds-eye view of how humans have impacted or modified their environments (31 January 2011). Images acquired by satellites decades apart showed cleared forests, irrigated crop fields in the middle of the deserts, altered landscapes (new roads and water bodies), and urban growth.

As part of the Earth Observation Day (EOD) activities, WyomingView coordinator Ramesh Sivanpillai described the utility of images acquired by satellites are useful for monitoring changes on earth’s surface. For example, Landsat images acquired in 2000 (bottom left) and 2009 (bottom right) shows the newly constructed roads (linear features), drilling pads (square features at the end of the roads), and ponds (in different shades of blue) for an area within the Powder River Basin.

The goal of EOD activities is to introduce teachers and students to remote sensing science and technology and is promoted by AmericaView. Sivanpillai works with individual teachers in Laramie-area schools and develops remote sensing course materials that relate to the topics taught to students.

Blum and his student teachers introduced students to the human impact on the environment. The remote sensing “presentation fit with our curriculum and the students were captivated,” Blum commented. “Your presentation certainly made an impression on our students because the information you provided was referenced in several discussions that occurred later in our unit.” Tailoring materials to individual class needs increases student engagement and learning.

Virginia Middle School Students View the Earth’s Surface in Time and Space

2012-02-29T04:57:00.009-08:00

By Tammy Parece, Geographic Society at Virginia Tech

On Saturday, February 25, 2012, VirginiaView, and the Virginia Geographic Society participated in Kid’s Tech University (KTU). Kid’s Tech University is a program at Virginia Tech with one primary goal: creating the future workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by sparking kids’ interest in these fields. KTU, active at Virginia Tech since 2009, invites middle school students from across the Commonwealth to participate in a university research experience. Geographic Society Members have participated on an individual basis in the past, but 2011 is the year we decided to be involved as a Society.

The title of our program was Looking Down is Looking Up: Why do we work with aerial photography? The GIS portion of the program was designed by Dr. John McGee, Associate Professor and Geospatial Extension Specialist, Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation, and a leader of the VirginiaView program, and has been presented by John at KTU over the past three years. This year, John asked if the Geographic Society could provide the manpower for the event and members jumped at the chance to support student research experience. Geographic Society Members have participated on an individual basis in the past, but 2011 is the year we decided to be involved as a Society.

The program introduced participants to applications of some common geospatial tools - geographic information systems (GIS), global positioning systems (GPS), and remote sensing, to provide these young minds with a new understanding of the earth. In this activity, the students used GIS to identify changes on the earth’s surface. They also examined aerial photography from three different time periods (1962, 2002, and 2008). The students explored, estimated, and measured general changes in land use during these periods. Our display was the first one the students saw when they walked through the door of the Lane Stadium West Club Box.

At our first table, we had two laptops with GIS programs running. The students were shown how to display the different layers in GIS, zoom in and zoom out to obtain different scales, and view the changes between aerial photos of the New River Valley Mall area. Students were awed at the changes between 2002 and 2008, but flabbergasted when they saw 1962. In most instances when they saw these 1962 aerial photos, they commented “nothing is there.” When they looked closer, they were able to identify farm fields, trees, streams, and the VPI Horticulture Research Center which was located on land now occupied by a strip mall.

At our second table, Dr. James Campbell, Professor, Department of Geography, introduced students to applications of stereovision in the analysis of aerial imagery introduced students to applications of stereovision in the analysis of aerial imagery. On a portable light table students could look at a glass plate of a 1968 aerial photo of Chicago and a 1980s high-altitude color infrared aerial photograph depicting the Roanoke, Virginia metropolitan region. Using a large mirror stereoscope, students could examine coastal landforms near a Minnesota Lake, using stereoscopic capability to see subtle variations in landforms and vegetation cover.
At our third table, participcants could view episodes of the Geospatial Revolution, a video series that introduces key applications of geospatial technologies in today’s world. We discovered that parents were not the only ones extremely interested in this video - many of the middle school students could not believe the capabilities of geospatial technologies, and their significance for our society.

Observing these kinds of changes helps us understand how landscape changes influence our local communities and environments. The activity was co-sponsored by VirginiaView, a state level organization within AmericaView, a national consortium that focuses on research, outreach to K-12 and community college educational communities, and distribution of imagery to a spectrum of users at state and local levels.

At the end of the day, we were thanked by VBI officials, including Dr. Kathleen O’Hara and Dr. Reinhard Laubenbacher. They told us that they were looking forward to our participation again next year. We let them know that we are participating in the next KTU event scheduled for Saturday, March 25. The theme for that KTU session is Health, Nutrition, Biomedical Engineering, and Medicine. They asked how we could participate in such diverse topics from session to session, an insight that highlights the essence of Geographic inquiry, which seeks to illuminate interrelationships between the physical and human worlds.

GPS Workshop for "Citizen Scientists" at Whitegrass Ski Touring Center

2012-02-08T08:56:00.000-08:00

By Rick Landenberger, AmericaView Executive Director

"Citizen science" can be broadly defined as science undertaken by non-scientists. According to internet lore, the term was coined by Rick Bonney at the Cornell Ornithology Lab when writing a National Science Foundation proposal.

Regardless of where the term originated, most of us have probably heard about citizen science projects - GLOBE, SETI@Home, and ELOKA, all come to mind. These are examples of citizen science

initiatives that engage 'ordinary' people, including children, in the process of scientific investigation, assessment, and monitoring. These and similar projects leverage the breadth and expertise of non-scientists to help with large projects, typically to help the pros resolve a perplexing problem that requires a geographically distributed network of sensors, dispersed data collection protocols (dispersed in either space or time), or computing power.

I've been leading what I'll call "citizen science" workshops at Whitegrass Ski Touring Center in Canaan Valley West Virginia for the past decade or so. Whitegrass uses the USFWS-managed Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge for some of its trail system, thus is required to provide natural history and/or scientific education and outreach workshops as part of their special use permit. My recent sessions have focused on GPS for mapping the landscape, and I've had a very rewarding experience 'training' people of various backgrounds in the use of GPS technology to map a wide variety of resources and features that exist at Whitegrass and on the Refuge. These include hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), now threatened by the exotic invasive Hemlock Wolly Adelgid, and red spruce (Picea rubens). Both spruce and hemlock have seen extensive reductions in their former distribution due to early 20th century logging and fires, and both of which are great for slowing runoff due to heavy precip and snow-melt, reducing flooding. Other features of interest include watershed boundaries (challenging to map in Canaan Valley), springs and seeps (areas for amphibian restoration projects), trails, and other scientific and cultural features.

This past weekend I had 10 'attendees', despite the poor weather and lack of snow (we usually either ski or snowshoe around the area, gathering waypoints, mapping boundaries, etc.). Several were Brooks Bird Club volunteers, genuine citizen scientists (the Audubon Society has been doing similar citizen science work for 100 years). They were interested in mapping bird locations that they contribute annually to the breeding bird survey on the refuge and around WV. Others were interesting in mapping trails that they'd found on their cross-country hikes. One young man, Andre, a student at a local elementary school, had been learning about latitude and longitude, and wanted to do some actual hands-on mapping to reinforce his text book lessons. There's nothing like a hands-on experience to reinforce and strengthen understanding of what might otherwise be a fuzzy concept.

As most of you know, passing on basic knowledge is a very rewarding experience. Doing so to those who will be using their new knowledge to benefit society is even more rewarding. It is great to see that citizens and scientists share so much in common, and that we can learn from each other so easily and effortlessly.

Thanks to Todd Ensign, Director of the Educator Resource Center at the the NASA IV &V Facility in Fairmont, WV, for the GPS units. Todd is a citizen scientist trainer of the highest caliber.

MultiSpec Update

2011-12-21T07:06:00.000-08:00

A new version was released on December 19, 2011. Some of the new features include:

MultiSpec now handles the Polar Stereographic projection.

MultiSpec now reads the GML header projection information in JPEG 2000 files. The test for this has been with simulated French PLEIADES data. This spacecraft was launched this past week.

The coordinate view will be displayed and default to Lat-Long units when an image window is first opened if MultiSpec can handle the projection information that is available in the image file. This was done as a time saving feature; at least it has helped me out!

More details on the update are at the MultiSpec News link.

Archiving and Distributing Indiana Historic Sanborn Maps

2011-11-13T15:02:00.000-08:00

This project archives and distributes the Indiana Sanborn 1883-1966 Historic Maps via the Indiana Spatial Data Portal (ISDP). All 11,517 maps are available in both TIFF and PDF formats on Indiana University’s Scholarly Data Archive (SDA). The SDA is located at both Indiana University Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses, providing automatic off-site copies of data for disaster recovery. Both the larger TIFF and the smaller PDF Sanborn images are available for spatial discovery via the Indiana Spatial Data Portal (ISDP). The public domain Sanborn images (1883-1923) which represent 87% of the dataset are available for download. Users may contact the staff at IU’s Government Information Services to request copyright restricted images (1924 – 1966) once they discover the images they need via the ISDP interface.

Landsat Tutorials from ColoradoView

2011-10-18T15:29:00.000-07:00

ColoradoView has some really great downloadable PDFs and HTML files that take users step-by-step through essential remote sensing and GIS functions including downloading free Landsat data from the USGS GLOVIS website, creating multiple scene mosaics, clipping mosaics to a defined study extent, applying Maxent modeling and more! Many of the following ColoradoView tutorials were directly funded through AmericaView and created by ColoradoView Student Interns at Colorado State University. Head on over to the ColoradoView Training page!

K-12 Students Present at the AmericaView Remote Sensing Conference in Cleveland, OH

2011-10-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, October 11, 2011, 20 middle and high school students presented their research projects alongside professors and graduate students at the AmericaView Fall Technical Meeting and Remote Sensing Conference in Cleveland Ohio. The projects all used geospatial technologies (GPS, GIS and remote sensing) to address an environmental problem. Ten student-led research projects were presented in a poster session in which a total of 40 projects were highlighted, including projects from university students, professors, and state agency researchers. Some of the student projects included study of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the best roofing material to use to reduce urban heating, the Earth’s energy budget as affected by land cover changes, and the impact of ocean temperature on Cholera outbreaks. Students attended the conference for free and stayed for research presentations on wetland monitoring and ecological assessment by United States Geological Survey (USGS) and university scientists. The students received an AmericaView medal and teachers received a certificate for their participation.

Students and teachers from the following schools attended:
Penta Career Center, Perrysburg, OH – 12th grade
Lakewood Catholic Academy, Cleveland, OH – 7th and 8th grade
Roswell-Kent Middle School, Akron, OH - 7th and 8th grade
Westerville North High School, Westerville, OH
Mr. Stefan Smolski, Grafton High School, Taylor County WV

AmericaView 2011 Fall Technical Meeting Kicks Off

2011-10-10T05:28:00.000-07:00

The 2011 AmericaView Fall Technical Meeting kicks off today in Cleveland, Ohio. There are a broad range of panel discussions, presentations, and workshops from some of the leading remote sensing experts in the nation. You can view the full program here. If you are looking to connect with a remote sensing guru in your state you can find contact information on the AmericaView membership page. You can follow the meeting on Twitter #avftm2011.

AmericaView welcomes our 38th and 39th members: OregonView and Rhode Island View

2011-08-22T13:46:00.000-07:00

OregonView is directed by Michael Wing, Associate Professor in the Department of Forest Engineering, Resources and Management in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University in Corvallis. In addition to teaching courses in remote sensing, Michael is co-director of the Environmental Remote Sensing Applications Laboratory (ERSAL) and teaches courses in geospatial analysis of forested landscapes, GIS, and surveying. OregonView partners include Geoffrey Duh at Portland State University, Anne Nolin in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Cy Smith in the Oregon Geospatial Enterprise Office, and Mary Hartel in the Branch of Geographic Sciences at the Bureau of Land Management.

Rhode Island View is director by Y.Q. Wang, Professor of Terrestrial Remote Sensing at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, and Director the URI Laboratory of Terrestrial Remote Sensing. Rhode Island View is co-directed by Greg Bonynge, a Geospatial Extension Specialist in Extension at URI. Y.Q. and Greg have a great start at their consortium, including Shane White in the Division of Planning at the Rhode Island Department of Administration, John Mustard in the Department of Geological Science Brown University, Peter Cornillon in the Graduate School of Oceanography at URI, Peter August in the Department of Natural Resources Science at URI, Chuck LaBash in the Environmental Data Center at URI, Peter Schultz, Director of the Rhode Island Space Grant Consortium at Brown University, Lynn Carlson in the Environmental and Remote Technologies Center at Brown University, and Paul Jordan in the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

Welcome OregonView and Rhode Island View!

Displaying Orthophotos

2011-06-11T21:28:00.000-07:00

In this video I cover some of the basics of displaying panchromatic, 3-band, and 4-band orthophotos. Although this video makes use of Vermont data the information is relevant to anyone who uses orthophotographs.

Access orthophotos in VT using Map Services

2011-06-04T19:53:00.000-07:00

Downloading imagery can be slow, plus it takes up a lot of disk space. The good folks at the Vermont Center for Geographic Information (VCGI) have put together a collection of map services that allow one to stream the best available color and pancromatic orthophotos in VT into ArcGIS. It's simple, it's easy, and it's fast. This short video will show you how to make use of the VCGI image map services within ArcGIS 10.

AmericaView at ASPRS 2011

2011-05-20T11:47:00.003-07:00

Rick Landenberger, AmericaView Executive Director

The ASPRS annual conference is a popular event for many of us in academic and applied remote sensing, and this year’s conference in Milwaukee was no exception. Over 1,100 attended, including a group of AmericaView PIs and their partners.

In fact, this year’s event was particularly exciting for us, as it was our first ‘Special Session’. Thanks to Tom Lillesand who raised the idea, Frank Scarpace for making it happen, and Sam Batzli for moderating, we were given 90 minutes on Wednesday morning, May 4^th to showcase our projects. Special Sessions offer an opportunity and format for a series of closely related talks, and naturally we focused ours on the AmericaView mission of education, applied research, data archiving and distribution, and our most recent set of projects in Emergency Management.

After Sam introduced the speakers, I gave a five minute overview of the organization to set the context. Ramesh Sivanpillai, the WyomingView PI and current AmericaView Board chairman and resident historian followed with a talk about applied research supported by WyomingView. Ramesh’s accomplishments over the years featured examples of student-led research projects using Landsat data to assess and monitor natural resources and agricultural systems in Wyoming. Ramesh and his students have been able to support both forest and range managers as well as small farmers in Wyoming through development of new monitoring and assessment methods and via hands-on training in the use of Landsat data.

WisconsinView PI Sam Batzli, former Board member and AmericaView’s current chair of the Technology Committee, then provided examples of our data archiving and distribution efforts. Although our data mission has been somewhat de-emphasized due to the USGS’s free Landsat archives, Sam was able to show the relevance and efficacy of several of our ongoing projects, ending with a discussion of our latest multi-state project involving WMS distribution of recent NAIP imagery.

Peter Sforza, a member of VirginiaView and the current co-director for the Center for Geospatial Information Technology at Virginia Tech, followed Sam and provided examples of emergency management applications in AmericaView, including a number of efforts where moderate resolution Landsat and MODIS data have been used to map recent tornado damage, including a nice example where MODIS data was useful in mapping tornado paths. He ended with a description of MontanaView’s latest efforts in developing and maintaining a national database of volunteer remote sensing experts available to support EM efforts across the country.

I wrapped up the session with a discussion of AmericaView’s educational efforts, first providing some background on our state-level K-12, undergraduate, graduate, and professional development projects, and ending with examples of our two coordinated educational projects, SATELLITES and Earth Observation Day. I ended with a summary of the 2011 Earth Observation Day event statistics, describing how we as an organization were able to reach 2,500 K-12 students and 50 teachers this year, a new record that we hope to eclipse with next year’s event.

Thanks again to Tom Lillisand, Frank Scarpace, and Sam Batzli for the ideas and support. I anticipate that this will become a regular event in future ASPRS conferences, and hope to see you there!

NAIP Imagery for Texas

2011-04-18T12:24:00.002-07:00

AmericaView members have been sharing information about USDA National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) Imagery Viewers. This blog post shares information about such a viewer established for Texas statewide imagery.

The Texas Natural Resources Information System (TNRIS) recently launched an OGC-compliant Web Mapping Service (WMS) that features a variety of orthoimage datasets. Currently, the WMS includes the following image catalogs:

Statewide - one catalog per UTM zone per each dataset ¹:

NAIP 2004 1 meter (1m) Color Infrared (CIR)
TOP 2008 & 2009 50cm Natural Color (NC) & CIR ²
NAIP 2010 1m NC
Geologic Atlas of Texas 250K

Regional

Texas Forest Service 2008 1m CIR - 13 East TX counties
HPIDS 2009 Galveston 6in NC & CIR ³
HPIDS 2010 Bexar, Guadalupe, and Comal Co.'s 6in NC
HPIDS 2010 Smith 6in & 1ft NC
USGS 2008 30cm Amarillo, Lubbock, & McAllen NC
USGS 2008 30cm Border NC
CAPCOG 2009 6in NC (Central Texas)

¹Texas straddles three Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) zones: z13 N, z14 N & z15 N

² Note that for 2009, zone 14 has partial coverage and zone 13 has none.

³ High Priority Imagery and Data Sets (HPIDS), a State of Texas procurement process that uses a master contract.

Instructions for accessing the WMS in ArcGIS and ERDAS Imagine:

ArcGIS 10 instructions:

In ArcMap, choose Add Data > GIS Servers > Add WMS Server
Insert the URL http://raster.tnris.org/lizardtech/iserv/ows?request=GetCapabilities&service=WMS& and click OK.
Either add all image catalogs at once using raster.tnris.org:80 or drill down to add individual datasets.

ERDAS Imagine 2011 instructions:

Choose Open > Files of type: Web Mapping Service (*.wms) > Connect
In GeoServices Explorer, choose Add Service
GeoService Type: Web Mapping Server
Insert the URL http://raster.tnris.org/lizardtech/iserv/ows?request=GetCapabilities&service=WMS& and click OK.
Back on the main Imagine window, right-click in the Retriever space > Open GeoService
Find raster.tnris.org:80 from the Select a Server dropdown menu & select OK.
Expand the WMS and drag desired image catalogs onto the View.

The WMS is compatible in AutoCAD and Microstation.

Issues? Questions? Use this form for inquiries and issues related to TNRIS GIS and LiDAR data and the WMS image service.

Posting to the AmericaView Blog

2011-04-13T08:22:00.000-07:00

The purpose of this post is to provide guidance on posting to this blog for AmericaView members. Blog posts are a simply, yet effective means for getting information out in a timely manner. It's far easier than updating a web page and because the AmericaView Blog is replicated through Planet Geospatial, it is seen by a broad audience.

Step1: Become a blog contributor
Tyler Erickson is the AmericaView Blog administrator. Simply get in touch with Tyler and ask him to add you as a contributor. As the AmericaView Blog runs off of Blogger, which is owned by Google, you will need to provide Tyler with your Google/Gmail account ID (e.g. landsatfan@gmail.com). If you don't have a Google/Gmail account, signing up for one is easy.


Tyler Erickson, AmericaView Blog administrator

Step 2: Create a new post
From the AmericaView Blog main page click on New Post in the upper right corner.

This will take you to the Posting > New Post window where you can start your blog post.

The Blogger toolbar allows you to inset hyperlinks and images.

Step 3: Preview your post
At any time you can preview your post to see what it will look like when it gets published. Simply click on the Preview button at the bottom of the Posting window. This will launch a new browser window that you can close once you have finished.

Step 4: Add labels
Label, or tags, made it easier for others to find relevant information in the AmericaView blog, so give some consideration to adding labels to your post before you publish it. If the label resembles been used before Blogger will give you an auto fill option. Multiple labels can be separated by a comma.

Step 5: Publish your post
Congratulations, you are now finished! Simply click on the Publish Post button and your post will be added to the AmericaView blog. You can always go back into the post and edit it if you notice an error down the road.

USGS EROS Image Gallery

2011-04-08T10:20:00.000-07:00

The EROS Image of the Week Gallery assembled by USGS is a wonderful resource for educational outreach. You can browse and download posters that demonstrate how Landsat satellite imagery is used for everything from monitoring natural disasters to detecting anthropogenic induced land cover change. The images are very powerful and the descriptions are clear and concise.

Earth Observation Day - April 8th, 2011

2011-03-31T10:24:00.002-07:00

Last year I posted about AmericaView's 2010 Earth Observation Day, an education and outreach event designed to support K-12 and undergraduate teachers in their use of geospatial science and technology in interdisciplinary STEM education. Building on our success in 2010, AmericaView is hosting Earth Observation Day 2011 on April 8th. The focus again this year is on freely available Landsat data and the many interesting and exciting applications that teachers and their students can use to better understand the world around them. A Very Spatial podcast describing the project provides more detail.

To support Earth Observation Day (EOD) 2011, AmericaView has developed a web site that hosts educational resources and statewide Landsat posters of all 50 states. The educational resources span K-12 from kindergarten to high school, and can be adapted for use at the undergraduate level as well. Lesson plans are provided that feature the use of puzzle games of matching Landsat images, and lesson plans that use Google Earth to explore the land use patterns around schools, including a lesson that introduces land cover mapping. For an excellent introduction to the field of geospatial science and technology, the Geospatial Revolution Project at Penn State Public Broadcasting recently created a series of on-line episodes that teachers can use as background.

We hope that teachers and students find these resources to be both exciting and powerful as a way to introduce geospatial science and technology into the classroom.

Enjoy the event, and let us know what you think.

The AmericaView EOD Team

Accessing Landsat Data and Using it in ArcGIS

2011-03-07T23:47:00.000-08:00

With a continuous record of global imagery extending back the 1972, the USGS Landsat archives are a real treasure trove of information. For a long time Landsat imagery was the domain of remote sensing experts, but with USGS making most Landsat images available online through their Global Visualization Viewer (GLOVIS) the data are now accessible to all. One of the most common questions I get when discussing image processing to GIS professionals is "How do I do that in ArcGIS?" Well, if you are looking to download some Landsat imagery and manipulate it in ArcGIS, this video is for you. It will walk you through the entire process, from downloading the imagery from GLOVIS to generating a Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) layer in ArcGIS.

2010 AmericaView Fall Technical Conference

2010-10-28T08:20:00.001-07:00

What a fantastic meeting!

Sam Batzli, Maria Vasys, and the folks at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Space Science and Engineering Center deserve a round of applause and heart-felt congratulations for hosting three days of insightful talks, effective committee meetings, stimulating workshops, amazing tours, and (so I'm told) scenic and interesting field trips. With well over 60 in attendance, this was once of our best meetings to date.

One of the most exciting things for me was to witness how we're forging closer and more effective ties between the StateViews. We've always been plugged into our respective state's needs, and we've done well over the years of adapting our resources to best meet those needs, but the examples of states working more closely together to further leverage our assets is, to me, remarkable. I know that we're all feeling a bit pinched lately, with too much to do and too few resources. But we're not letting this bog us down or dampen our enthusiasm - cooperative, coordinated regional and other joint projects are actually increasing! The research group, in particular, seems to be hitting its stride, with the identification of several critical and timely applied research ideas. Furthermore, the outreach group identified a number of projects that will support the newer members of the consortium as they grow their state consortia and become more closely integrated into the larger consortium. Thank you both, Rick Lawrence of MontanaView, and Kevin Dobbs of KansasView, for stepping up. The education group continues to work with K-12 science teachers across the country in advancing STEM education through Earth Observation Day and various other local and state events, and the Technology group has a few exciting projects underway as well, including the new multi-state data services project. Jay Morgan's and Tyler Erickson's groups, including the Alaska contingent and Larry Biehl, Board Chairman extraordinaire and walk-off pinch-hitter for Technology, also deserve our thanks. What great energy!

Rest assured that the Board and staff appreciates your feedback via the follow-up survey, and is already beginning to broadly organize our Winter Business Meeting in DC. By that time we'll know more about the elections and will have a better sense of how things might shake out politically. That said, and recognizing the tremendous need to continue to work together to meet our objectives, there is no better time to build on our network's strengths of cooperation and mutual support. Thanks again for all of your contributions - expanding the many uses of remote sensing could not be a more timely nor a more critically important endeavour. You're work makes a difference in the lives of many people across the country.

AmericaView's Earth Observation Day 2010

2010-04-21T10:32:00.001-07:00

Satellite images have become a ubiquitous part of our daily lives, even if many of us don’t realize it. Whether you see them on the evening news, on the Weather Channel, on the internet, or in some other venue, satellite images are practically everywhere. They permeate the modern media, in advertising, in television series, and at the movies. In scientific and technical disciplines, images are used to forecast water shortages, to predict crop yields, and to monitor forest fires, volcanic eruptions, and earthquake damage. Yet, despite their pervasive nature, most of us know very little about how satellite images are acquired, processed, and analyzed.

Earth Observation Day, a cooperative educational project between AmericaView and the U.S. Geological Survey, aims to change this. Working with both K-12 and undergraduate students and faculty, AmericaView and the USGS are embarking on a national outreach and education effort that introduces students to the power and excitement of remote sensing, engaging them in lessons and activities that take the mystery out of remote sensing and connect it STEM education at all levels of the K-12 curriculum. Clearly the need is well recognized – American students rank below students in many other countries in the critically important STEM disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. However teachers often don’t have the knowledge, materials, or support necessary to introduce remote sensing into the science, geography, mathematics, and social science curriculum, even though the ‘fit’ can be made seamlessly and in a way that engages students in active, participatory learning.

The idea behind Earth Observation Day is to fill this need in each of AmericaView’s state partners. Working together, AmericaView, the StateViews, and the USGS have developed educational materials and a web site to host and support the event. The site provides remote sensing educational materials, and links to other resources such as posters, texts, on-line image galleries, and much more.

As examples of activities that occurred on March 24th, 2010, the first official AmericaView Earth Observation Day, Dr. Tom Mueller, associate professor at California University of Pennsylvania, lead a land use / land cover mapping exercise with 150 students. They identified a U.S. university of their choice, and created a map that they could use to determine the ‘livability’ of the area (green space, proximately to public land, etc.). Dr. Mueller, who directs Cal U’s GIS Club, challenged the students in the AmericaView Remote Sensing Image Memory game, followed by a Landsat cake.

Students at Laramie Junior High, Wyoming, were introduced to remote sensing and application satellite images through a lecture titled “Earth Observation – An Introduction to Remote Sensing.” Dr. Ramesh Sivanpillai of WyomingView spent two days and talked to 112 students in six 8th grade physical science classes. Among other topics, the students learned about satellite sensors and electromagnetic spectrum, and how unique information exists in wavelengths that are invisible to the human eye. They also learned about the career opportunities available in remote sensing.

In West Virginia, Dr. Rick Landenberger, AmericaView Executive Director, spent the day at Oak Glen High School, talking with 107 students in 9th grade physical science and 10th grade biology classes. After a lecture on remote sensing principles, the students helped Dr. Landenberger map the land cover within their local watershed using a Landsat scene draped over aerial imagery in Google Earth. The students will follow this with a field day to nearby Tomlinson Run State Park, where they’ll collect land cover ground reference data to check their maps, ultimately linking land use – land cover to water quality and quantity as part of a larger GLOBE project.

These are a few of the organized activities that occurred. The web site offers lessons and activities that can be implemented with very little technical knowledge of remote sensing. In future years the AmericaView consortium and USGS plan to develop more coordinated projects, perhaps linking to GLOBE through a coordinated land cover mapping field campaign, like the MUC-A-THONS developed by New Hampshire View and GLOBE Land Cover PI Dr. Russ Congalton.

Adding WMS to GoogleEarth

2010-04-13T10:35:00.000-07:00

by Sam Batzli, WisconsinView

One of the many (and somewhat hidden) features of GoogleEarth is the capability of adding custom OGC Web Map Services (WMS). The connection to the WMS and its content can then be saved as a KML file and shared with others. Any user who opens the file in GoogleEarth will automatically add the WMS to their GoogleEarth session in the same configuration in which it was saved.

Here's how to do it.
1) Launch GoogleEarth
2) From the "Add" menu, select "Image Overlay"
3) You should get a dialogue box like this when you select the "Refresh" tab.

4) Click on "WMS Parameters"
5) A dialogue box like the following should appear...

6) You may select a WMS from the drop-down list...
or add your own by clicking "Add..."
7) Enter the URL for a working WMS in the dialogue box such as...

http://speedy.ersc.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/latest_wi_goes?

8) If your WMS is valid, you should get a list of layers to choose. [T] = Transparent and is based on the configuration of the WMS. Select and arrange the layers for viewing with the middle buttons.

9) If you are using my WMS example, select any combination of Channels 1 through 6 and arrange them so that the layer you want on top is at the bottom of the stack (counter intuitive, I know).

10) Finally, give the layer a title and some descriptive information. This interface seems to default to a GIF image type. For most imagery you will want to use PNG and that can be changed in the "Link" (see above). Once the WMS is placed on the globe, you can return to the properties by right-clicking the layer name. This is also where you "Save Place As..." KMZ or KML (KMZ is just Zip-compressed KML). I recommend using the initial saved KML as a starting point. In a text editor you can enhance the KML by separating layers, adding buttons, descriptions, and even logos. (See the KML Reference for more info).

This example uses this KMZ

That's it! Have fun!

An Overview of eCognition Segmentation Algorithms

2010-04-13T07:58:00.000-07:00

This video is the second AmericaView object-based image analysis (OBIA) virtual seminar series. This video is intended for users new to eCognition or for those users looking to improve segmentation performance. Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne from the University of Vermont provides an overview of the most common segmentation algorithms available in eCognition including:

Incorporate thematic (vector) datasets by turning them into image objects
How to reduce processing time by stringing together multiple segmentation algorithms, using sub-levels, and maps
Alternatives to multiresolution segmentation
Compare segmentation results using maps.

If you are an eCognition user, you can download the project containing the data and the rule set from the eCognition Community web site.

OhioView SATELLITES Geospatial Technology Conference

2010-04-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

OhioView SATELLITES Geospatial Technology Conference

K-12 and university students present their research projects based on geospatial technology

Presented by:
OhioView & Penta Career Center
9301 Buck Road, Perrysburg, OH

April 27, 2010
4:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Penta Career Center
9301 Buck Road
Perrysburg, OH 43551

Contact: Kevin Czajkowski, 419-530-4274, kczajko@utnet.utoledo.edu

K-12 and university students from Ohio will present their research results from work they performed throughout the school year. The National Science Education Standards state that students learn the concepts and facts of science, obtain reasoning and procedural skills of scientists, and understand that the nature of science is a particular form of human endeavor (National Research Council, 2000).

Google's Earth Engine

2010-03-17T07:33:00.000-07:00

In recent months Google has released some information on a new remote sensing analysis platform that they are developing called Earth Engine. The platform will allow users to run remote sensing algorithms against petabytes of remote sensing data stored in the Google cloud.

The initial announcements were made right before the International Climate Change Conference (COP15) held Copenhagen in 2009. The initial demo application was monitoring deforestation in the Amazon rain forest.

Source: Seeing the Forest through the cloud (The Official Google Blog)

More recently, an interview with Rebecca Moore, Engineering Manager of Earth Engine, describes more of the project's background, goals, and the intended launch (later this year in advance of COP16).

Many details of this platform are currently unknown, and those details will determine how useful the platform is to remote sensing scientists. What level of processed data will be available? Will data be available before or after atmospheric correction (and if corrected, what algorithm)? Will the data be geolocated or resampled to a grid (and if so, what grid)? What languages can be used to define the remote sensing algorithms? What sensor datasets will be made available? Etc, etc, etc...

Despite the unknown details, it looks like this platform could be a valuable tool for remote sensing education, by enabling users to run and distribute remote sensing analyses to anyone with a web browser. AmericaView will be watching this project to see how it progresses.

Large Dataset Processing in eCognition: Overlapping Tile Method

2010-02-25T19:12:00.000-08:00

This video is part of the AmericaView eCognition software tutorial series. It explains a work flow known as "Overlapping Tile Processing." Overlapping tile processing is an efficient method for processing very large datasets using eCognition Server. It is one way of overcoming the memory limitations that are inherent to object-based image analysis.

This presentation is recommended for intermediate to advanced users of eCognition.