Columns

Winter 2010 (Volume 25, Number 1)

Water

And Space Systems

Ray A. Williamson, PhD, is editor of Imaging Notes and Executive Director of the Secure World Foundation, an organization devoted to the promotion of cooperative approaches to ... read on

Fall 2009 (Volume 24, Number 4)

Community Remote Sensing

IGARSS 2010 Theme

For nearly the first three decades of satellite remote sensing, the utility of the data was limited by the expert knowledge of complex software required to make full use of the ... read on

Summer 2009 (Volume 24, Number 3)

Capacity Building and the U.N.

This June, I spent nearly two weeks at the meeting of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), which meets in Vienna, Austria annually . . . read on

Spring 2009 (Volume 24, Number 2)

Space Debris Positional Data Needed Commercially

In the past, imaging satellite operators have generally not needed to worry much about the risk their satellites might face from collisions with other satellites or with orbital ... read on

Winter 2009 (Volume 24, Number 1)

Secure World Foundation Forum

A New Partnership for Human Security

In 2007, a few years after I became editor of Imaging Notes, I took on the exciting and daunting task of leading the Secure World Foundation (SWF), a Colorado-based operating ... read on

Fall 2008 (Volume 23, Number 3)

The Pace of Change

The Game Continues to Change... and Ever More Quickly By Ray Williamson, PhD, editor Over the past few years, the pace of change in the satellite remote sensing marketplace, ... read on

Summer 2008 (Volume 23, Number 2)

Remote Sensors & Natural Disasters

Some Important Needs Remain

Images from satellites and the software used to analyze them have added an important set of tools to responders' ability to provide help and succor to victims of natural ... read on

Spring 2008 (Volume 23, Number 1)

Policy Watch

Minding the (Space) Environment

Most remote sensing satellites are devoted in some way to monitoring and managing Earth’s environment. Indeed, the broad, synoptic view of moderate resolution, multispectral ... read on

Fall 2007 (Volume 22, Number 3)

Policy Watch

An Emerging Earth Observations Giant

As is true for many readers of this magazine, my work occasionally takes me to interesting places in the world. This year, as an external faculty member of the International Space ... read on

Summer 2007 (Volume 22, Number 2)

Policy Watch

After more than three decades of promising advances in satellite remote sensing that never quite gained market traction outside of defense applications, remote sensing has started ... read on

Spring 2007 (Volume 22, Number 1)

Policy Watch

The Newest Weather and Climate Tool

On October 19, 2006, MetOp-A, Europe's first polar-orbiting, operational environmental satellite, was launched aboard a Russian Soyuz launch vehicle from Kazakhstan's Baikonur ... read on

Fall 2006 (Volume 21, Number 3)

NASA

NASA: No Longer Understanding and Protecting Our Home Planet?

In Shakespeare’s well-known play Romeo and Juliet, Juliet asks, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.” Today, one might ask much ... read on

Winter 2006 (Volume 21, Number 1)

Whither the Remote Sensing Marketplace?

Several years ago, remote sensing experts wondered aloud whether or not the commercial satellite remote sensing industry would survive. Starting in 1999, first Space Imaging, then ... read on

Summer 2005 (Volume 20, Number 2)

Smallsat Remote

Smallsats as New Drivers in

After several years of unrealizedpromise, false starts and uncertainties, microsats and smallsats centered on remote sensing applications have become the focus of developing ... read on

Fall 2005 (Volume 20, Number 3)

The Landsat Saga: Reflecting and Projecting

Reflecting and Projecting

Every so often a reporter calls to ask for my views on the Landsat program or its follow-on, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM). First, I usually issue a long sigh — not ... read on

Winter 2005 (Volume 20, Number 1)

China’s Rapidly Growing Strength in Remote Sensing

Recently I took part in an international conference in Beijing on remote sensing in archaeological research and heritage preservation. Supported by several Chinese research ... read on

Fall 2004 (Volume 19, Number 4)

Fresh Water: Political and Social Tension

The Stuff of Life and the Focus of Future Political and Social Tensions

Water—essential to life and to national economies; clean, fresh water is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain, especially in arid and semi-arid climates. In the near future, ... read on

Winter 2004 (Volume 19, Number 1)

Improving Transportation Security

A Geospatial Approach

Shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, geospatial experts went to work assisting in the response and recovery efforts. Their ... read on

Spring 2004 (Volume 19, Number 2)

A Challenge from Europe

Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES)

Over the past three decades, Europe has developed a series of Earth observations satellites. Most of them have been developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) in close ... read on

Summer 2004 (Volume 19, Number 3)

Improving Transportation Security: A Geospatial Approach

Shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, geospatial experts went to work assisting in the response and recovery efforts. Their ... read on

Summer 2006 (Volume 21, Number 2)

Global Transparency:

The Times They Are A-Changin’

In case you had not noticed, the world of remote sensing information delivery is changing rapidly. Once largely the province of experts trained in the arcane skills of processing ... read on