Happy New Year and Welcome to GRS-S!
The IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRS-S) has just launched its new web site. We hope to provide more information and a better service to our members and to the international remote sensing community. This year is a special year for GRS-S: Our 30th IGARSS conference will be held in July 25-30, Honolulu, Hawaii. You are cordially invited to join us in this special event and commemorate the 30th anniversary of IGARSS! This conference is predestinated to become the best IGARSS that we ever had!
One of my goals during my term as President of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRS-S) is to achieve a large involvement of our members and of the international remote sensing community in our Society. The GRS society is one of 38 societies that belong to the world’s largest professional society, and that is the IEEE. The vision of the GRS society is to be the leading society in the science, engineering, application and education of remote sensing. We are a transnational society due to the global nature of our activities and a premier society in the field of remote sensing. The GRS Society is third fastest growing society of IEEE.
I would like to encourage you to join the GRS Society, if you are not yet a member! You can make a bigger impact on Remote Sensing through the GRS Society. With the Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites in orbit, the upcoming Global Monitoring for Environmental and Security (GMES) satellites, the National Polar Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), the EOS follow-on program (as outlined by the US Earth Science Decadal Survey), Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) initiative, etc., remote sensing plays an increasingly important role in solutions to environmental problems, the study of global climate change and the monitoring of natural disasters. We see great strides in remote sensing instrumentation, data processing, and applications. The Society strives to address remote sensing techniques, applications, policies as well as new research directions. By being a member, you can be a part of this important voice. You can make a bigger impact on these issues. In the following, I enumerate some of the advantages and benefits of being a member of the IEEE GRS-S.
You can readily access our three premier journals: the IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (TGRS), IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing (J-STARS) and the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters (GRSL). Our Society’s archival publications represent the forefront of remote sensing science, technology and applications. The Transactions are among the premier journals in IEEE as well as remote sensing journals in terms of citation index and impact factor. Members can access the latest issues either on-line or via hard copies in the mail.
You can participate in our five Technical Committees: Instrumentation and Future Technologies (IFTC), Data Archives and Distribution (DADC), Data Fusion (DFC), Frequency Allocations in Remote Sensing (FARS) and International Spaceborne Imaging Spectroscopy (ISIS). The technical committees work together to review the state of art of technology in these research areas. The Technical Committees make important impacts on the future directions of remote sensing technologies. You can be a member and participate in this process.
You can attend IGARSS, our premier conference, at a reduced rate and also participate in the planning of IGARSS. Our annual international symposium IGARSS reports on the recent advances in remote sensing. The IGARSS attendance continues to increase. More than 1700 people attended IGARSS 2007 in Barcelona and IGARSS 2008 in Boston. Next IGARSS will be held in Hawaii (2010), Tokyo (2011), Munich (2012) and Melbourne (2013). If you are an expert in the technical topics of Applications of Remote Sensing, Mission and Programs, Geoscience Modeling and Processing, Data Processing and Algorithms, Electromagnetic Problems, Instrumentation and Techniques, Remote Sensing Policy, you may serve as volunteer on the Technical Program Committee. You can also volunteer to organize special sessions. We not only organize IGARSS every year, but we also support and co-sponsor a large number of specialty symposia.
You can utilize the resources provided by the Society, such as our quarterly Newsletter, education programs, industrial relations and newsletter, on-line lectures and current state-of-the-art information of the IEEE GRS-S (www.grss-ieee.org). The Society puts forth a lot of effort in remote sensing education initiatives, development and collection of educational resources for K-12, college/ graduate education as well as continuing education for professionals. Members can access these resources. We are strengthening our industry relations program. As a member, you can connect to our industrial partners via this initiative.
Other benefits of IEEE GRS-S members include subscription to IEEE Spectrum magazine, access to IEEE Xplore data base, IEEE e-mail alias, network with others in the local member community (chapters), career and employment resources, etc. In the meantime, if you have suggestions concerning the GRS Society, please do not hesitate to let me know.
With my best regards and wishes for a successful and healthy New Year!
Alberto Moreira
President
IEEE GRS-S
Phone: +49 8153 282305
alberto.moreira@dlr.de
