Senior membership has the following distinct benefits:

• The professional recognition of your peers for technical and professional excellence.
• An attractive fine wood and bronze engraved Senior Member plaque to proudly display.
• Up to $25.00 gift certificate toward one new Society membership.
• A letter of commendation to your employer on the achievement of Senior Member grade (upon the request of the newly elected Senior Member).
• Announcement of elevation in Section/Society and/or local newsletters, newspapers and notices.
• Eligibility to hold executive IEEE volunteer positions.
• Can serve as Reference for Senior Member applicants.
• Invited to be on the panel to review Senior Member applications.
• Eligible for election to be an IEEE Fellow

Applications for senior membership can be obtained from IEEE website: http://www.ieee.org/web/membership/seniormembers/index.html

Recipient of the Symposium Prize Paper Award Franz J. Meyer (right) and GRS-S President Tony Milne.

The GRS-S established the Symposium Prize Paper Award to recognize the author(s) who presented at the IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) an exceptional paper in terms of content and impact on the GRS-S. In selecting the paper, other factors considered are originality, clarity and timeliness of the paper. The published versions of the papers in the Digest shall also be evaluated. Prize: Certificate and $1250, equally dividedbetween the authors.

The 2009 Symposium Prize Paper Award is presented to Franz J. Meyer and Jeremy Nicoll with the citation:

For a very significant contribution to the field of endeavorof the IEEE GRS Society in the paper entitled “The Impact of the Ionosphere on Interferometric SAR Processing,” authored by Franz J. Meyer and Jeremy Nicoll, and presented at the 2008 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, July 2008 in Boston, MA, USA, IGARSS´08 Proceedings.

Franz J. Meyer (S’03-A’03-M’04) received the Diploma in geodetic engineering and the Doctor of Engineering degree from Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Munich, Germany, in 2000 and 2004, respectively. From August 2000 to September 2003 he was with the Chair for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing of the Technische Universitaet Muenchen, where he mainly worked on SAR Interferometry and differential SAR Interferometry. From October 2003 to February 2007 he was a scientific employee at the Remote Sensing Technology Institute, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen. There, his scientific work was focused on SAR Interferometry techniques for current and future SAR satellites (e.g. TerraSAR-X and -L), the conception of algorithms for traffic monitoring using SAR satellites (e.g. TerraSAR-X), the correction and modelling of atmospheric effects in INSAR data, and Persistent Scatterer Interferometry. From March 2007 until September 2008 he was with the Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF), University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA as a research scientist. Since October 2008 he is Research Assistant Professor Radar Remote Sensing at the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, where his current work includes studies of ionospheric and tropospheric effects on SAR and InSAR, new methods of SAR Interferometry processing, SAR Interferometry applications, SAR processing, and SAR data quality analysis. He is the author of more than 50 scientific publications, including three acknowledged as “Best Papers.”

Jeremy Nicoll received a BS degree in chemistry (1995) and an MS degree in analytical chemistry (1997) from Brigham Young University. In 1998 he joined the staff at UAF’s Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) as a Calibration Engineer, focusing on analytical and statistical approaches to radar product quality. In 2001 he worked as a Software Developer where he developed signal-processing algorithms related to synthetic aperture radar (SAR). He moved into management two years later, when he was appointed the lead of ASF’s Technical Services Office and became the Engineering Center Manager in 2004, where he introduced innovative software development methods and processes. His current research interests are remotesensing archaeology and ionospheric effects in radar data.

“For continuous contributions and leadership to the GRSS AdCom and the GRS Society.”

Diane L. Evans (F’10) is the Director for Earth Science and Technology at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Evans received the A.B. degree in Geology from Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA, in 1976 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in 1978 and 1981, respectively in Geological Sciences from the University of Washington, Seattle. Her graduate work included glaciological research and studies of Mars surface geology. She joined JPL in 1981 to develop remote sensing techniques for Earth surface geology using combined data sets from visible, infrared, and radar satellites.

Evans has been a principal investigator on a number of research activities sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and has been a member of many international science teams. Her field areas have included Northwest China, Australia, Spain, Hawaii, Wyoming, and the Mojave Desert of California. She was detailed to NASA Headquarters as the Geology Program Manager in 1985. Upon returning to JPL, she became the Supervisor of the Radar Sciences Group until 1989, Project Scientist for the Spaceborne Imaging Radar Project from 1989–1998, and Chief Scientist for the JPL Earth Science Program from 1996–2001. She was appointed Director for Earth Science and Technology in May 2001.

As Director for Earth Science and Technology, Evans is responsible for the development, implementation, and operations of 19 missions and flight experiments. These span the research areas of oceanography, atmospheric composition, and geophysics, and incorporate a broad spectrum of advanced technologies. She is also responsible for JPL’s non-NASA research and technology activities, which focus on mutually beneficial collaborations with the four national space sectors.

Evans has chaired a number of planning committees for and a variety of academic institutions. She has been the recipient of several NASA awards including the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal. Evans has been involved with the training of two Shuttle astronaut crews and has participated in payload operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center during four Shuttle flights. She is the author of over 100 research publications and conference presentations in the fields of geologic and radar remote sensing, and has given over a dozen short courses on these topics internationally. She is a member of numerous professional societies and the Chinese Academy of Science. She was an elected member of GRSS AdCom in 2006–2008 and chaired the Chapter Activities Committee.

A Certificate of Recognition was presented to David Weissman with the citation:

“For continuous contributions and leadership to the GRSS AdCom and the GRS Society.”

GRS-S President Tony Milne (left) with Certificate of Recognition recipient Diane Evans, Mark Bourassa (he received the Certificate on behalf of David Weissman), and Awards Co-Chair Martti Hallikainen (right).

David E. Weissman (S’60–M’61–SM’76–F’91–LF’03) received the B.A. and B.E.E. degrees and the M.E.E. degree from New York University, New York, in 1960 and 1961, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University, Stanford, CA, in 1968. From 1963 to 1968, he was a Research Engineer with the Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, CA. Since 1968, he has been an Electrical Engineering faculty member with Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY. His research, for over 40 years, has been involved in the development of microwave radar and radiometric remote-sensing techniques that can estimate ocean surface wind stress and the effect and amelioration of precipitation interference. These results, broadly published in the engineering and scientific literature, enable applications for satellite-based radars (SeaWinds on QuikSCAT and Advanced Earth Observing Satellite-2). These efforts, supported by the NASA Physical Oceanography Program, are part of the Ocean Vector Winds Science Team, with collaborations from Florida State University, Tallahassee, and the New York City office of National Weather Service. His service to the IEEE spans over 35 years. Dr. Weissman received the National Research Council Senior Postdoctoral Associateship in 1974 to 1975 at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He was elected IEEE Fellow, in December 1990. He received the IEEE Centennial Medal in 1984 (nominated by the Oceanic Engineering Society). He received the Best Applications Paper Award in 1977 for a paper coauthored with James W. Johnson published in the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation. He was honored with the Oceanic Engineering Society Distinguished Service Award in 1995. He received the NASA HQ Citation for Contributions to the NSCAT Scatterometer Project in 1998. He was Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering from 1979 to 1982 and has been a member of the Administrative Committee (AdCom) of the Oceanic Engineering Society since 1976. He has been Chairman of the Technical Committee on Remote Sensing, Oceanic Engineering Society (OES) since 1985 and is currently Chairman of the OES Fellow Evaluation Committee. Since his election to the Geoscience and Remote Sensing AdCom in 1999, he has been serving as Education Committee Chair and is currently the Publicity and Public Relations Coordinator. In December 2006, he received a Grant from the IEEE Foundation to initiate a new type of collaboration: one between experts within IEEE technical societies [specifically Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS)] and museums, with the purpose of creating new types of museum exhibits that can better display activities that engineers engage in, to students and the general public. This resulted in a Weather Radar Exhibit which is now on display at the Cradle of Aviation Museum, Garden City, NY.

http://www.ieee-whispers.com
Summary report by Jocelyn Chanussot

With the technical sponsorship of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) and held last August in Grenoble, France, the 2009 Workshop on Hyperspectral Image and Signal Processing – Evolution in Remote Sensing (WHISPERS) was a great success, gathering 200 researchers from 30 different countries worldwide.

There were a total of 158 submitted papers, including 108 regular submissions and 50 invited contributions for selected special sessions. Among the 108 regular submitted papers, 87 have been accepted, corresponding to a 20% rejection rate. The evaluation of all the papers (including special session papers) was performed based on the reports of anonymous reviewers. In average, each paper received 2.8 reviews. The final program included 16 oral sessions for 86 presentations and 6 poster sessions for 51 presentations. All the papers published at WHISPERS 2009 were available on IEEE Xplore less than 6 weeks after the workshop.

The technical program also included three outstanding plenary talks, with both a wide geographical distribution and a wide thematic distribution:

• Alan M. Lefcourt, from the Environmental Microbial and Food Safety Lab., USDA Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, USA, talked about hyperspectral imaging and food safety.
• Gianrico Filacchione, from the VIRTIS science/technical team, INAF-IASF Rome, Italy, talked about planetary exploration with VIS-NIT imaging spectrometers, discussing the VIRTIS-M case.
• the Department of Forest Production, Faculty of Forestry, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Malaysia, talked about hyperspectral remote sensing for tropical forestry applications.

The workshop was sponsored by various companies and institutions. We take this opportunity to thank our exhibitors, (NEO, Actimar, ASD Inc., and Bonsai Advanced Technologies), and our sponsors. In particular, Norsk Elektro Optikk AS (NEO), our Norwegian partner, was present, demonstrating their most recent equipment. All the volunteering participants had the chance to serve as a model to enjoy a hyperspectral picture of themselves.

Three papers were selected to receive a Best Paper Award. The authors received one of the most sought-after trophies, a copy of the “golden whispers”, and a certificate of recognition. Congratulations!

• Jochem Verrelst, Michael Schaepman and Jan Clevers for their outstanding contribution “Fusing Minaert-K with Spectral Unmixing Forest Heterogeneity Mapping Using CHRIS-PROBA Data”
• Mario Parente, James Clark, Adrian Brown and Janice Bishop for their outstanding contribution “Simulation of the Image Generation Process for CRISM Spectrometer Data”
• Steven Adler-Golden for his outstanding contribution “Improved Hyperspectral Anomaly Detection in Heavy-Tailed Backgrounds”.

Beyond the technical program, whose quality was highly appreciated by all the attendees, the workshop included some nice social events, including an icebreaker reception at the Grenoble city-house and a banquet on the top of the Bastille with a breath-taking view over the city and the surrounding mountains.

Going up the Bastille using the cable-car was surely a highlight of the event, but all the attendees were rewarded during the dinner by the close-up animation of a magician.

WHISPERS 2010 Hits the North!
Next June, the 2010 edition of WHISPERS will be held in Reykjavik, Iceland. The same policy will be used: submission of full 4-page papers (deadline: February 15th) and anonymous peer-review to ensure the optimal quality of the technical contributions. If you are interested in organizing and chairing a special session, or if you want to become a sponsor or an exhibitor, please be in touch with the organizing committee.

The picture above features Prof. Jon Atli Benediktsson, the General Chair of WHISPERS 2010 receiving the “Golden Whispers” from Prof. Jocelyn Chanussot, General Chair of WHISPERS 2009. As the conference travels from place to place, this trophy will follow, making sure that WHISPERS’ spirit meets scientific excellence.

See you in Iceland in 2010 for the GRSS premier event in the hyperspectral world!

During the past two years a committee of the U.S. National Research Council has quietly and painstakingly assessed the use of the radio spectrum for scientific purposes. The foci of the study were the two broad scientific applications of radio waves: passive environmental measurements critical to weather forecasting, climate studies, and related Earth science applications, and radioastronomy measurements necessary for understanding the origins of the universe, nature of matter, and processes of formation of stars and galaxies. Although the study was confined to passive uses of the spectrum below ~1 THz, the conclusions of the committee on the value of the spectrum to the public through weather forecasting and environmental monitoring, as well as basic physical science via radio astronomy observations was clear: these services enhance public safety, environmental security, and extend human knowledge of the Earth and the larger universe.

Of great concern, however, was the related conclusion that the capability to use the spectrum for passive scientific measurements is increasingly under threat due to the widespread development of active communication and other radio devices. Passive remote sensing of the Earth relies on precise measurements of the faint natural thermal noise emitted by all matter, including the oceans, atmosphere, soil, land cover, snow, and ice. Similarly, radio astronomy relies on measurements of noise signals radiated by planets, stars (including our sun), galaxies, and radiation otherwise leftover from the earliest moments of the universe. Measurement of such faint signals requires the utmost in receiver sensitivity, and is easily confounded by the smallest levels of radio interference from transmitters of a variety of types. The rapid and widespread development of the wireless industry along with proliferation of other active services such as radars and radio location devices is making passive measurements increasingly difficult.

The study was thus commissioned to both assess the growing demand for the use of the spectrum and to ascertain the need to preserve part of the spectrum for scientific applications. The levels of interference being experienced at frequencies critical to these applications is increasing, and in one case one of the products (measurements of soil moisture) of a NASA Earth science mission launched in 2002 was seriously compromised due to radio interference. Missions currently being planned that use frequencies below 10 GHz are highly subject to interference. It is anticipated by the committee that unless measures are taken to protect and regulate use of a small percentage of the radio spectrum, similar interference will render future planned missions unable to make several key environmental measurements. Due to similar radio interference effects, radioastronomy facilities costing billions of dollars are often unable to observe during events such as the periods of passage of transmitting satellites, and some parts of the radio spectrum below 1 GHz are unusable for radioastronomy except at the most remote locations on the globe.

In the area of Earth observation, the future NASA Aquarius and current SMAP missions will both use the international radio quiet band from 1400 to 1427 MHz, but they will be subject to interference from tracking radars especially near populated areas of the U.S. The current U.S. rules for emissions from tracking radars do not preclude out-of-band emissions in this band, even though international radio regulations state that “all emissions in this band are prohibited.” In another case, a band about 300 MHz wide, in the range from 6 to 7 GHz, is required for observation of soil moisture from future U.S. polar orbiting weather satellites, but no empty spectrum is available. Increasing use of spread spectrum communication systems is likely to further reduce the possibility that any bands will be available for Earth remote sensing of soil moisture in this range. Other devices that threaten the use of bands for scientific purposes include cell phones, radiolocation systems, automobile collision avoidance radars, wideband 60 GHz communication systems, and new software-defined radios.

Moreover, remote sensing of the Earth and radioastronomy are global activities. Atmospheric, oceanic, and land surface conditions far away from any one country often influence the local weather and climate. Global change can only be understood on the basis of observing such conditions around the Earth. The global penetration of portable wireless devices – even on ships far out at sea – leaves no location radio quiet. New radioastronomy facilities are being set up in some of the most remote places on Earth, for example, Western Australia and the Karoo desert of South Africa in order to operate in radio quiet areas. In spite of their remoteness (which comes at considerable cost) these facilities will still be subject to interference due to, for example, reflections from airplanes and the global penetration of wireless devices.

Better coordination of the communications and science communities through appropriate national and international policy could prevent interference and allow both active and passive services appropriate use of the spectrum. Foremost is the need to for radio regulators to recognize that the passive spectral bands – in spite of their being empty of manmade emissions – are productively used for the above scientific purposes. Moreover, since Earth remote sensing and radioastronomy are global activities, recognition of the important uses of passive bands must occur on a worldwide basis. In addition, regulations need to be adopted to ensure that out-of-band emissions from active devices are effectively unable to cause interference in the primary allocated science bands.

While some degree of radio frequency interference mitigation can be realized by new detection technologies, the committee assessed this potential and concluded that such “unilateral” RFI mitigation is at best a short term and partially effective solution. Rather, new ways of managing spectrum are needed to ensure the availability of quiet spectrum to the passive services. Opportunistic coordinated use of spectrum by the active and passive services is a potentially valuable new means of spectrum sharing made conceptually possible by new internet-based communications protocols such as IPv6. However, implementation of coordinated sharing techniques requires standards development and the educational forums needed for consensus between active and passive users, and this requires financial support. As a precursor to standards development the committee urged that a thorough assessment of actual spectrum usage in the U.S. from licensed, unlicensed, and inadvertent radiators be performed. Such an assessment would provide a strong basis for the development of coordinated sharing techniques.

When considered from an economic perspective the committee concluded that passive spectrum, much like public parkland, defies monetization. Currently, 3.6% of the U.S. is in the National Park system, while only 2% of spectrum below 3 GHz is allocated for passive services on a worldwide basis. The preservation of such small amounts of spectrum for public passive use is well justified given that the vast majority of spectrum is available for the active services, but currently is inefficiently used. Coordination on the remaining unused high-frequency portion of spectrum is also feasible to support new passive scientific uses that currently have no allocations. The study recommends that such appropriate coordination and support become a primary objective of all radio regulatory agencies.

The NRC spectrum study report, entitled “Spectrum Management for Science in the 21st Century”, is available at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12800. A GEO task (AR-06-11) on the topic of radio spectrum management has been identified and can be downloaded at http://www.earthobservations.org/documents/tasksheets/latest/ar-06-11.pdf.

A.J. Gasiewski is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, and co-chair of the NRC spectrum study. He is past President of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society, and a member of the executive committee of the IEEE’s Committee on Earth Observations. M.H. Cohen is Emeritus Professor of Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology and co-chair of the study. He is a former member of the IEEE and the IRE.

‘Reprinted from Earthzine: http://www.earthzine.org’

Figure 1. SMOS satellite in orbit. Credit: CESBIO

The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, also known as ESA’s Water Mission, is the second one of the European Space Agency’s Earth Explorer series. It was launched on November 2nd into a low Earth orbit at ~760 km altitude. The SMOS satellite was developed by ESA through cooperation between Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) and the Centro para el Desarrollo Technológico Industrial (CDTI) [1]. The payload for SMOS is a single instrument, the Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis (MIRAS) that was developed by EADS CASA Espacio with major sub-components built by companies in Spain and 17 European countries overall.

The MIRAS instrument uses 69 individual antenna elements and receivers and two-dimensional aperture synthesis in order to achieve the needed horizontal spatial resolution of the 1.4 GHz brightness temperature measurements. The receivers are arranged in a ‘Y’ configuration as shown in Fig. 1 which depicts the SMOS satellite in orbit. The L-band measurements provide sensitivity to changes in soil moisture and sea surface salinity, but are relatively insensitive to variations in atmospheric water vapor and vegetation cover. The importance of these measurements was initially from the need to measure and track water for agriculture and monitoring desertification. Recently this need has been strengthened due to applications for improving weather forecasting and climatology studies.

Figure 2. The Very Large Array (VLA) located in Socorro, New Mexico. Each antenna in the array measures 25 m in diameter. Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF

The 2-D aperture synthesis approach used by MIRAS applies techniques used in radio astronomy to space-based passive microwave remote sensing. In radio astronomy the principles of interferometry to synthesize a very large effective aperture at radio frequencies are commonly used to improve the angular resolution of point sources in the sky [2]. One example is the Very Large Array (VLA) telescope located near Socorro, NM. Figure 2 shows an overhead view of the VLA and its Y configuration similar to SMOS. The MIRAS instrument is the first space-based microwave radiometer to employ 2-D aperture synthesis for Earth remote sensing.

There were several technological challenges encountered in the design and construction of MIRAS. Of note is the necessity of precisely matching each receiver response. Specifically, this requires passband filters that are highly stable and matched as a function of frequency and temperature. Secondly, in order to maintain fixed distances between receivers, the support arms were required to be very stable over the wide changes in temperature expected on orbit. Another significant challenge was the interconnection of each receiver to the correlator unit. This was accomplished using an optical fiber network in order to avoid contamination and cross-talk between the signals from each receiver as much as possible.

Initial un-calibrated data from SMOS was received on November 20 and now the launch and early orbit phase is complete. Going forward, the MIRAS instrument calibration will continue to be refined and optimized in order to achieve the best result. Close coordination with field campaigns in both
land (Soil Moisture) and ocean (Ocean Surface Salinity) applications is expected. We look forward to the initial reports from the SMOS mission at Microrad 2010 and IGARSS 2010 this summer.

References
[1] http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/smos/
[2] http://www.nrao.edu/index.php/learn/radioastronomy/radiotelescopes

IGARSS’09 General Chair Harold Annegarn with Technical Program Committee Co-Chairs Michael Inggs (right) and Roger King (left).

The IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society’s 2009 Publication Awards were presented at the IGARSS Awards Banquet in the Ballroom of the Mount Nelson Hotel on Thursday, July 16 in Cape Town, South Africa. The Mount Nelson Hotel, situated on nine acres of tranquil gardens at the foot of Table Mountain, has quiet sophistication and formality of a bygone era with its distinctive colonial quality. The dinner was hosted by IGARSS’09 General Chair Harold Annegarn and TPC Co-Chairs Michael Inggs and Roger King. The following awards were presented by GRS-S President Tony Milne and GRS-S Awards Co-Chair Martti Hallikainen during the dinner:

• Transactions Prize Paper Award
• Letters Prize Paper Award
• Symposium Prize Paper Award
• Interactive Session Prize Paper Award
• Three Student Prize Paper Awards
• Two Certificates of Recognition.

Karen St. Germain receives the Transactions Prize Paper Award on behalf of Li Li, Peter Gaiser, Mary Albert, David Long, and Elizabeth Twarog, from GRS-S President Tony Milne.

The GRS-S established the Transactions Prize Paper Award to recognize authors who have published an exceptional paper in IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing during the past calendar year. When selecting the paper, other factors considered are originality and clarity of the paper. IEEE membership is preferable. Prize: Certificate and $3000, equally divided between
the authors.

The 2009 Transactions Prize Paper Award was presented to Li Li, Peter Gaiser, Mary Albert, David Long and Elizabeth Twarog with the citation:
For a very significant contribution to the field of endeavor of the IEEE GRS Society in the paper entitled “Windsat Passive Microwave Polarimetric Signatures of the Greenland Ice Sheet,” coauthored by Li Li, Peter Gaiser, Mary Albert, David Long, and Elizabeth Twarog, and published in IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. 46, No. 9, pp. 2622–2631, September
2008.

Li Li (M’96-SM’06) received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle in 1995. He is currently with the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC. His primary interests are in the passive and active microwave remote sensing of soil moisture, vegetation, snow and precipitation for climate applications. He is the principle investigator for the WindSat land algorithm. He is also the land/soil moisture performance lead for the NPOESS Microwave Imager/Sounder (MIS). From 1997 to 2004, he was a senior scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. From 1995 to 1997, he was with the Caelum Research
Corporation, working at NOAA/NESDIS Office of Research and Application, Camp Springs, Maryland. He was a student visitor in 1993-1995 at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado. Dr. Li is a senior member of IEEE and a member of the American Geophysical Union. He
has been a recipient of the NCAR/RAP fellowship 1993–95, NASA Group Achievement Awards in 2002 and 2008, and JPL Technical Excellence Award in 2002.

Peter Gaiser (S’91-M’93-SM’04) received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, in 1987, and Ph.D. degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, in 1993, where he studied microwave remote sensing, with emphasis on synthetic aperture interferometric radiometry.

He has been with the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Washington, DC, since 1993, and is currently Head of the Remote Sensing Physics Branch, Remote Sensing Division at NRL. While at NRL, he has been involved in a variety of microwave and millimeter-wave radiometry projects, with a concentration on polarimetric radiometry research. His research interests include instrument design, development, and calibration; data collection; and model development specifically for the purpose of ocean wind vector measurements from space. He is the Principal Investigator for the WindSat spaceborne polarimetric microwave radiometer demonstration project. Dr. Gaiser is also the System Performance Engineer for the NPOESS Microwave Imager/Sounder (MIS) being developed by NRL.

Mary R. Albert received the B.S. degree in mathematics from Pennsylvania State University in 1975, B.E. and M.S. degrees in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth Thayer School of Engineering in 1983, and Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences from the University of California San Diego in 1991. She is a senior research engineer at the Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab in Hanover, N.H., where her research is centered on transfer processes in porous media, including airsnow exchange in the polar regions and in soils in temperate areas. Dr. Albert is also Adjunct Professor of Engineering at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., where she serves as thesis advisor to students at undergraduate, Master’s, and Ph.D. levels. Dr. Albert has been Principal Investigator on many research projects in Greenland and Antarctica. Dr. Albert currently serves on the GPRA Advisory Committee for the National Science Foundation, on the Executive Committee of the AGU Cryosphere Focus Group, the Editorial Boards of the journals Hydrological Processes and Cold Regions Science and Technology, and in the past has served on the National Research Council Polar Research Board. Dr. Albert has received the Department of the Army Research and Development Award 1989, US Army Corps of Engineers Women in Science Achievement Award 1996, and has received numerous Equal Employment Opportunity and Special Act Awards.

David G. Long (S’80-F’08) obtained his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 1989. From 1983 to 1990 he worked for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he developed advanced radar remote sensing systems. While at JPL he was the Project Engineer on the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) project which flew from 1996 to 1997. He also managed the SCANSCAT project, the precursor to SeaWinds which was launched in 1999 and 2002. He is currently a Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Brigham Young University where he teaches upper division and graduate courses in communications, microwave remote sensing, radar, and signal processing, and is the director of the BYU Center for Remote Sensing. He is the principle investigator on several NASA-sponsored research projects in remote sensing. He has numerous publications in signal processing and radar scatterometry. His research interests include microwave remote sensing, radar theory, space-based sensing, estimation theory, signal processing, and mesoscale atmospheric dynamics. He has over 80 journal publications and 300 conference publications. Dr. Long has received the NASA Certificate of Recognition several times. He is an Associate Editor for the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

Elizabeth Twarog received the B.S. degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Northeastern University, Boston, MA, in 1992, 1995, and 1998, respectively, all in electrical engineering. From 1993 to 1998, she worked in the Radar Systems Laboratory in the field of polarimetric low-grazing angle radar sea scatter and airborne radar imaging of the coastal ocean. Since joining the Passive Microwave section of the Remote Sensing Division at the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC in 1999 she has been involved with microwave spaceborne polarimetric radiometry. She was a member of the WindSat satellite technical and science teams. Her research interests include microwave receiver system testing, satellite post launch calibration, and passive millimeterwave interferometry

The 2009 Letters Prize Paper Award is presented to Attilio Gambardella and Maurizio Migliaccio with the Citation:

For a very significant contribution to the field of endeavor of the IEEE GRS Society in the paper “On the Superresolution of Microwave Scanning Radiometer Measurements,” authored by Attilio Gambardella and Maurizio Migliaccio, and published in IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 796–800, October 2008.

Attilio Gambardella was born in Vico Equense (NA), Italy. He received the Laurea degree (5-year legal course of study) in Nautical Sciences from the Università degli Studi di Napoli Parthenope in 2003 and the Ph.D. in Electronic and Computer Science Engineering at Università degli Studi di Cagliari in 2007. His Laurea degree thesis was recipient of the 2003 Best Remote Sensing Thesis Award by the IEEE GRS South Italy Chapter.

He has been lecturing at Università degli Studi di Cagliari and Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, Barcelona (Spain). From 2007 to 2009 he joined the Remote Sensing group at the Università degli Studi di Napoli Parthenope, Engineering Faculty. He is, at present, Scientific Project Officer at the
Joint research Centre of the European Commission, Institute for Energy, Renewable Energy Unit in Ispra (Italy). His main research interests deal with microwave radiometry, Earth monitoring with SAR, and solar energy resource modeling by means of visible and IR data for geographical management of the photovoltaic electricity generation. He has published more than 40 scientific peer reviewed and conference papers and served as reviewer for IEEE Transaction on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Lettters, and ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. He is member of the IEEE, the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society, and the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Recipient of the Letters Prize Paper Award Maurizio Migliaccio (right) with GRS-S President Tony Milne.

Maurizio Migliaccio is full professor of Electromagnetics at Università di Napoli Parthenope. He is an IEEE Senior Member, vice-Chairman of the IEEE Italy Section and Chairman of the IEEE GRS South Italy Chapter. He was promoter and organizer of the IEEE GOLD Remote Sensing Conferences. He has been teaching Microwave remote sensing since 1994 and Electromagnetic compatibility and EM Numerical methods. He was University AdCom member elect and UE Secretary of Cost Action 261. He lectured in Germany and Spain and held a tutorial on SAR oil slick observation at IGARSS’ 08, Boston, MA, USA. He has published in various fields of applied electromagnetics including resolution enhancement techniques, polarimetric SAR oil slick observation and SAR ship detection.

The 2009 Interactive Session Prize Paper Award is presented to Christian Melsheimer, Georg Heygster, and Leif Toudal Pedersen with the citation:

For a paper with exceptional merit and posted in the Interactive Session of the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium IGARSS’08 “Integrated Retrieval of Surface and Atmospheric Parameters over the Arctic from AMSR-E Satellite Microwave Radiometer Data Using Inverse Methods , and coauthored by Christian Melsheimer, Georg Heygster, and Leif Toudal Pedersen, and presented at the 2008 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, July 2008 in Boston, MA, USA, IGARSS’08 Proceedings.

Roland Romeiser (right) receives the Interactive Session Prize Paper Award on behalf of Christian Melsheimer, Georg Heygster and Leif Toudal Pedersen, from GRS-S President Tony Milne.

Christian Melsheimer was born in Kamen, Germany, in 1967. He received his Diplom-Physiker degree from the University of Dortmund, Germany, in 1994, and his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Hamburg, Germany, in 1998. From 1995 to 1998, he was with the Institute of Oceanography, University of Hamburg, and from 1999 to 2002, with the Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing, and Processing (CRISP), National University of Singapore. Since 2002, he has been with the Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen. His research interests include microwave remote sensing of atmosphere, sea and land, with special emphasis on the polar regions.

Georg Heygster received the diploma degree in 1976 in solid state physics and the Ph.D. in 1979 in digital image processing both in physics from the University of Goettingen, Germany. He served as a consultant at the Computer Center of the University of Bremen, Germany, from 1979 to 1988. Since 1989, he has been head of the group Geophysical Analysis of Satellite Images at the Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen. His research activities include passive and active microwave remote sensing, especially of both surface and atmospheric parameters in the high latitudes, various aspects of the hydrological cycle, long-term trends and retrieval techniques.

Leif Toudal Pedersen received his Master degree in microwave engineering from the Technical University in Denmark (DTU) in 1982 and the Ph.D. on microwave remote sensing from satellite in 1991. Through the years, he has worked on satellite observations of sea ice from microwave satellite images as well as many other satellites. He is senior scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute.