Tag: Remote sensing

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The William T. Pecora Award

Dr. William Thomas Pecora. Director of the USGS from 1965-1971 Later served as Under Secretary of the Interior

The William T. Pecora Award is presented annually to individuals and teams using satellite or aerial remote sensing that make outstanding contributions toward understanding the Earth’s surface, educating the next generation of scientists, informing decision makers or
supporting natural or human-induced disaster response. The award is presented for national and international work.
An individual award recognizes achievements in the scientific and technical remote sensing community, as well as contributions leading to successful practical applications of remote sensing. Consideration will be given to sustained career achievements or singular
contributions of major importance to the field of remote sensing.
A group award recognizes a team, a group of individuals, or part of an organization that has made major breakthroughs in remote sensing science or technology or developed an innovative application that has a significant impact on the user community or
national and international policies.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) jointly sponsor the award. It was established in 1974 to honor
the memory of Dr. William T. Pecora, former Director of the U.S. Geological Survey and Under Secretary, Department of the Interior.
Dr. Pecora was a motivating force behind the establishment of a program for civil remote sensing of the Earth from space. His early vision and support helped establish what we know today as the Landsat Satellite Program.

Pecora Award Eligibility

Any individual or group working in the field of remote sensing of the Earth is eligible to
receive the William T. Pecora Award. We accept nominations for public and private sector individuals, teams, organizations, and professional societies. National and international nominations are welcome. Previous nominees not selected as recipients may be re-nominated for future awards.
** Nominations Due May 29, 2026 **

Instructions for preparing a nomination and other information about the award can
be found by scanning the QR code to the right or by visiting the Pecora Award
webpages: William T. Pecora Awards | U.S. Geological Survey

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Cornell Summer Satellite Remote Sensing Workshop

Cornell Summer Satellite Remote Sensing Workshop
June 1 – June 12, 2026, Cornell University, Ithaca New York

The Cornell Summer Satellite Remote Sensing Workshop is being offered once again this year. The workshop is highly methods-oriented and intended to give participants the practical skills needed to work independently to acquire, analyze and visualize large data sets derived from a wide range of ocean satellite sensors.  

Strong emphasis is given to ocean color remote sensing and the use of NASA’s SeaDAS software to derive mapped imagery of geophysical parameters using satellite data derived from the most popular ocean color sensors.  Pre-written python scripts will be used in conjunction with SeaDAS to enable processing large quantities of ocean color data from Level-1 to Level-3.  In addition, the workshop will address the acquisition and use of Level-3 satellite data products for sea surface temperature, ocean wind speed and sea surface height.  

A central goal of the course is to develop good python programming skills that are needed to make effective use of satellite data to routinely monitor ocean conditions, gain new insights into ocean dynamics, and to rigorously test new hypotheses.  Participants will work with both Jupyter Notebooks and executing python scripts from the Unix Terminal.         

For more information about the training workshop content and enrollment process:
Visit:   http://oceanography.eas.cornell.edu/satellite

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NASA Sponsored Workshop on Calibration and Validation of Ocean Color Remote Sensing

NASA's Ship-Aircraft Bio-Optical Research (SABOR)

University of Maine would like to invite applicants to the 2025 offering of the University of Maine’s long-running, hands-on optical oceanography graduate training course, “Calibration and Validation of Ocean Color Remote Sensing.”

The course will meet from May 18-Jun 14 2025, at UMaine’s Darling Marine Center in Walpole, Maine, USA.

Course elements will include:

  • Lectures on the basic theory of the light interaction with matter in aquatic environments;
    ocean color remote sensing and its inversion; optical sensor design and function; optical
    approaches to ocean biogeochemistry; and computation and propagation of measurement
    uncertainties
  • Laboratory sessions for hands-on work with optical instrumentation and training in
    radiative transfer software
  • Field sampling of optical and biogeochemical variables in the environmentally diverse
    waters of coastal Maine
  • Analysis of optical and biogeochemical data sets
  • Collaborative student projects

Applications are requested by February 15, 2025.

For full information, and instructions to apply, please visit: https://dmc.umaine.edu/2024/11/21/nasa-sponsored-workshop-on-calibration-and-validation-of-ocean-color-remote-sensing/

Ocean shore lighthouse Portland, Maine
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Detection of HABs in Southeast Asia by Remote Sensing: Operational Warning and Regional Monitoring Protocols

The Plymouth Marine Laboratory (UK) will be hosting the Annual Challenger Society and RSPSoc – Marine Optics Special Interest Group meeting on 16-17 December 2013. The meeting will focus on the science and technology behind optical marine measurements collected both in situ and remotely, and their application to marine biogeochemistry.

A training course in Detection of HABs in Southeast Asia by Remote Sensing: Operational Warning and Regional Monitoring Protocols will be offered by the Nippon Foundation/POGO AWI Center of Excellence and will take place at the University of the Philippines from 24 to 15 March 2014. The course is open to 15-20 participants from developing countries within SE Asia area. See https://sites.google.com/site/habseatraining/ for more information.

Source: IOCCG

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Remote sensing oceanography of a harmful algal bloom (HAB) off the coast of southeastern Vietnam

DanLing TANG, H Kawamura, Hai Doan-Nhu, W Takahashi , 2004. Remote sensing oceanography of a harmful algal bloom (HAB) off the coast of southeastern Vietnam. J. of Geophysical Research (Ocean).Vol 109, doi:10.1029/2003JC002045, 2004.

Abstract

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) in the southeastern Vietnamese coastal waters have caused large economic losses in aquacultured and wild fisheries in recent years; however, there have been few oceanographic studies on these HAB events. The present study reports an extensive HAB off southeastern Vietnamese waters during late June to July 2002 with in situ observations and analyzes the oceanographic conditions using satellite remote sensing data. The HAB had high chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentrations (up to 4.5 mg m−3) occurring ∼200 km off the coast and ∼200 km northeast of the Mekong River mouth for a period of ∼6 weeks. The bloom was dominated by the harmful algae haptophyte Phaeocystis cf. globosa and caused a very significant mortality of aquacultured fish and other marine life. In the same period, sea surface temperature (SST) imagery showed a cold water plume extending from the coast to the open sea, and QuikScat data showed strong southwesterly winds blowing parallel to the coastline. This study indicated that the HAB was induced and supported by offshore upwelling that brings nutrients from the deep ocean to the surface and from coastal water to offshore water and that the upwelling was driven by strong wind through Ekman transport when winds were parallel to the coastline. This study demonstrated the possibility of utilizing a combination of satellite data of Chl a, SST, and wind velocity together with coastal bathymetric information and in situ observations to give a better understanding of the biological oceanography of HABs.

Keywords:

  • harmful algal bloom (HAB);
  • satellite remote sensing;
  • upwelling;
  • SeaWiFS;
  • chlorophyll a;
  • AVHRR SST;
  • South China Sea