signatures

SIGNATURES Newsletter of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing - Ahmedabad Chapter ISRS

Volume – 21

Aprril 2009

No.1

In this issue

Editorial Dear Members,

Editorial, Congratulations

1

ISRS National Symposium 2008 – Pre-symposium tutorials

2

ISRS Annual Convention and National Symposium 2008

3

Silver Jubilee Celebration of Ahmedabad Chapter

4

Technical Brief

5

Environmental Watch

6

News and Snippets

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ISRS-AC-EC Office Bearers Chairman

Shri. A. S. Kiran Kumar

Vice Chairman

Prof. M. B. Dholakia

Secretary

Shri N.S. Mehta

Joint Secretary

Dr. Anupam K. Singh

Treasurer

Shri K. P. Bharucha

ISRS-AC-EC Members Mrs. Arundhati Misra Shri B. N. Mankad Shri B. P. Rathore Mrs. Parul Patel Dr. R. Nanda Kumar

Editorial Board Shri K. R. Manjunath Shri C. P. Singh Dr. Abha Chhabra Mr. Ramesh Sojitra

Contact US ISRS-AC Communications [email protected] Editorial Communications [email protected] 4006, AMD/AFEG/RESA SAC (ISRO), Ahmedabad-38015

This is a special issue on ISRS Symposium-2008 This is a special issue of Signature highlighting National Symposium on “Advances in Remote Sensing Technology and Applications with Special Emphasis on Microwave Remote Sensing”, held at Nirma University, Ahmedabad during December 18–20, 2008. The ISRS-AC has the precedence of meticulous organization of workshops, conferences, symposia and it was proved again. The silver jubilee function of ISRS-AC brought the memorial moments to the members. The efforts have been made to cover these features in detail. The Chandrayaan mission caught the attention of the world making India feel proud. Many of the ISRS-AC members are part of this team and congratulations to them. As usual, this issue also covers professional excellence of members by way of winning awards. We are continuing the technical brief by scientists. We request you to inform achievements of members to the editorial team. Your creative thoughts, ideas and articles are most welcome. K.R.Manjunath

Congratulations to Chandrayaan Team for accomplishing successful mission

CONGRATULATIONS Dr. R.R. Navalgund, Director, Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad received „Maharana Udai Singh Award‟ for the year 2009, instituted by Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation in recognition of his distinguished services to permanent value to society in the field of environment. The award was given by Shriji Arvind Singh Mewar on March 15, 2009 at The City Palace Complex, Udaipur. Shri A. S. Kiran Kumar, Dy. Director, SEDA, SAC, Ahmedabad and Chairman, ISRS-AC received „Bhaskara Award‟ for the year 2007, instituted by ISRS in recognition of his outstanding life-time contribution in promoting remote sensing activities in the country. The award was presented by Shri D. Rajgopalan, Chief secretary Govt. of Gujarat at the inaugural function of the ISRS National symposium on December 18, 2008 at Nirma University, Ahmedabad. ISRS-AC members convey heartiest congratulations and best wishes to Dr. Navalgund and Shri A. S. Kiran Kumar. The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of 1 their chosen field of endeavor - Vince Lombardi

ISRS National Symposium 2008 The 28th Annual Convention of Indian Society of Remote Sensing (ISRS) and National Symposium on “Advances in Remote Sensing Technology and Applications with Special Emphasis on Microwave Remote Sensing”, were held at Nirma University, Ahmedabad during December 18–20, 2008. This symposium was jointly hosted by Space Applications Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad, ISRS-Ahmedabad Chapter and Nirma University, Ahmedabad.

ISRS Pre-Symposium Tutorials Prior to the National Symposium, two days pre-symposium tutorials were organized during December 16–17, 2008 at Space Applications Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad. The tutorials were based on two emerging themes of remote sensing applications: „Microwave Signatures’ and „Hyperspectral data and Analysis Techniques’. Smt. Parul Patel, Scientist GTDG/SAC was the convener for „Microwave Signatures‟ tutorial. The tutorial included lectures by eminent faculty from SAC and hands-on sessions to 33 participants from various different universities and research institutes.

The tutorial on „Hyperspectral data and Analysis Techniques’ was convened by Dr. S. S. Ray, Scientist AFEG/SAC. The lectures for this tutorial were delivered by eminent faculty from India and abroad including scientists/professors from SAC, NRSC, ADRIN, IIT-Mumbai, NASA/JPL and ITC, Netherlands. The hands-on sessions were also conducted for 37 participants who took part in this tutorial. Both the tutorials received overwhelming response and appreciation from all the participants.

The tutorials concluded with valedictory function on December 17, 2008 with distribution of certificates to all the participants by Prof Orhan Altan, President ISPRS and Dr Shailesh Nayak, President, ISRS.

Certificate distribution Field data collection (Hyperspectral Tutorial) 2

Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity -Aristotle

ISRS Annual Convention and National Symposium - 2008 The ISRS National Symposium on “Advances in Remote Sensing Technology and Applications with Special Emphasis on Microwave Remote Sensing”, was formally inaugurated at the auditorium of Institute of Management, Nirma University, Ahmedabad on December 18, 2008. The inaugural session began with traditional invocation and lighting of the lamp by the dignitaries. Shri D. Rajagopalan, Chief Secretary, Govt. of Gujarat, inaugurated the symposium. In his inaugural address, Shri Rajgopalan stressed upon the progress made in the field of Remote Sensing, sensor technology with special emphasis on microwave sensors and the need for newer analysis techniques in the use of high-resolution satellite data in thematic mapping and applications with special reference to problems associated with coastal regions of Gujarat. Dr. Ketan Kotecha, Director, Institute of Technology, Nirma University welcomed all the distinguished guest and delegates. Dr. R. R. Navalgund, Director, Space Applications Centre and Chairman, Organising Committee, briefed all the delegates about the Symposium and thanked all the delegates for the overwhelming response received for the Symposium. He also thanked ISRS for awarding National Symposium during Silver Jubilee year of the Ahmedabad Chapter. Dr. Shailesh Nayak, President ISRS and Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), in his Presidential address welcomed all the delegates and gave an account of the activities of the Society and reiterated that the Ahmsdabad Chapter was privileged to organize the Annual Convention of ISRS and National Symposium – 2008 during it‟s Silver Jubilee year. He mentioned about the initiatives made by the Society to popularize the remote sensing and GIS technology especially by publishing ISRS Journal by Springer. Prof. Orhan Altan, President International Society of Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing (ISPRS) and Guest of Honour, mentioned about various activities of ISPRS and stressed upon the need of strengthening bond between ISPRS and ISRS on international level. Several ISRS individual achievement awards were presented during the inaugural function. Bhaskara Award – 2007 was presented to Shri A.S. Kiran Kumar, Dy. Director, Sensor Development Area, SAC (ISRO) for his outstanding contributions to the development of electro optical imaging sensors for earth observation programme in the country. National Geo-Spatial Award For Excellence–2007 was presented to Dr. Parvatham Venkatachalam, Principal Research Scientist, CSRE, IIT Bombay; P. R. Pisharoty Memorial Award – 2008 and Indian National Geospatial Award – 2008 were presented to Dr. (Ms) Rashmi Sharma, Scientist, MOG/SAC and to Mr. Srinivasa Kumar Tummala, INCOIS, Hyderabad respectively. The Young achiever award was presented to Shri Amitabh, Scientist at SAC. The inaugural function concluded with vote of thanks by Shri N.S. Mehta, Organising Secretary, ISRS Symposium-2008. The inaugural programme was followed by invited talks and technical parallel sessions. The industry and space exhibition was inaugurated by Prof. Orhan Altan. As per convention, the first day‟s programme concluded with the Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Memorial Popular Lecture by Prof. R. Narasimha, FRS, Member Space Commission and Earth Commission on, “Climate Change and the Indian Space Programme”. Six invited talks by eminent personalities such as: Prof. Orhan Altan, Istanbul Technological University and President ISPRS, Dr. Robert O. Green, Scientist, JPL, Shri S.S. Rana, Dy. Director, SAC, Shri A.S. Kiran Kumar, Dy. Director, SAC, Dr. V. Jayaraman, Director, NRSC, Hyderabad and Dr. Stophel, KMI, Netherlands were presented. Fifteen technical parallel sessions covering different areas related to the focal theme of the conference as well as various aspects of natural resources and environmental inventory, and management were organized, where 92 oral and 59 poster presentations were made by scientists representing more --- than 70 organizations. A plenary session on the focal theme of the conference was held on December 20th, 2008 and five resolutions were passed for onward transmission to various users in Ministries and NGO‟s. The session ended with presentation of awards to best papers, both general as well as student categories presented Industry and Space Exhibitions during the symposium.

Awards during Symposium

AGM The Annual General Body meeting (AGM) of the ISRS was held on December 19, 2008.

Dr. (Ms) Rashmi Sharma :Recipient of P. R. Pisharoty Memorial Awards for paper presentations in student and Award – 2008. general category. 3

Silver Jubilee Celebration of Ahmedabad Chapter ISRS-AC Silver Jubilee function was celebrated on December 19, 2008 at Nirma University, Ahmedabad. The function was attended by over 300 members. Mr. R. P. Dubey was the compeer of the function brought humour and liveliness to the events. It started with recitation of the vedic hymns by Mr. R. M. Pandya. A condolence was observed pay homage to the departed members of the ISRS-AC. The timeline of professional achievements of members was narrated. It was a memorable occasion to see veterans appreciating the successive executives to the applause of the audience.

A colorful Souvenir was compiled and release by Prof. P. D. Bhavsar. The Souvenir covered Glimpses of ISRS-AC Activities - Past Twenty Five Years, -Historical sketch of Signatures, member‟s professional achievements apart from ISRS-AC Members Directory. The compendium of Signatures was released by Dr. Baldev Sahai. All the previous executives of the ISRS-AC were felicitated by the current executive council while the activities were presented as slide show in the background. To commemorate the occasion a silver coin was distributed to all the members of the society.

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Our life is like an echo: We get back what we give - Anonymous

Technical Brief

Microwave Remote Sensing –Part II

Imaging radar remote sensing systems like synthetic aperture radar produces high-resolution image of earth‟s surface. The image properties like brightness, texture etc describes the target on the basis of interaction of microwaves with the target. They provide unique information for some of the new applications like soil moisture assessment, snow wetness, forest biomass, wind speed, oil spill, paleochannel identification etc. For exploring planetary surfaces, radars are of particular help in surface and subsurface geology and feature identification. Beginning of microwave remote sensing using satellite SAR sensor can be considered from 1978 when first civilian satellite called SEASAT-A (L-band with 23o incidence angle in HHpolarisation) was launched. The wealth of data provided by Seasat SAR in short period was useful in bringing out largescale assessment of some of the land and ocean applications. Subsequently during 1990‟s, there were C-band SAR (ERS1/2, Radasat-1 and Envisat) and L-band SAR (JERS-1). This decade witnessed the development phase of many applications like soil moisture, large scale agricultural crop assessment, geological applications, ocean and polar science, disaster management etc. Among other, emerging new techniques like SAR interferometry were established for DEM and slow motion detection. This technology paved the way for operational global DEM from SRTM and input to many new applications like land subsidence, glacier motion, earth quake etc. Some of the applications could grow from experimental to operational level flood, rice mapping etc. Still the demand on the data requirement in terms of polarization, frequency, high repeat cycle were emerging. Thus, a number of satellites like Radarsat-2, ALOS PALSAR with new ability like quad polarization, incidence angle at different frequency are becoming available to user community during this decade. Also, planetary missions like Chandrayaan-1, Chang‟e-1, Selene etc are using radar sensors for planetary science applications. Thus, a number of opportunities exist for application scientists for conducting experiments or developing procedures for operational services. Recognizing the importance of MW remote sensing, technological and scientific developments were initiated in India. In addition to passive sensors, ISRO developed airborne SAR, ground based scatterometer and an operational Disaster management SAR system. Experiments were also conducted using data of opportunity from satellites like ERS, Envisat, Radarsat, Shuttle Imaging Radar etc. Such initiatives have provided a deep understanding in data processing and analysis techniques. These activities were strengthened further by formulating JEP, which provided opportunity to researchers for developing and understanding of applications using multiparameter data. New techniques like polarimetry and interferometry were also initiated during this phase. Through various developmental effort, operational ability in flood mapping and monitoring, rice acreage estimation were developed in India using Radarsat-1 SAR. Thus, strong scientific base for the application demonstration and operationalisation has been developed during this phase. This helped in developing ability to understand and analyse single channel, multi-channel SAR, interferometry and polarization discrimination ability of SAR for earth resources applications.

Applications: New vistas with RISAT With a wide variety of experience, the need of Indian SAR mission was felt and a C-band orbital SAR called radar imaging satellite ( RISAT-1) was defined for meeting various application requirements in India. Advanced modes of operation of RISAT SAR are quad pol, hybrid polarimetry mode and interferometric mode. Quad pole data provide unique identification of many of the earth features, which otherwise found to be difficult to classify using conventional single channel SAR image. For example, quad pol data will help in early season crop information, crop identification as well as improved information about resources. A typical example of quad pol data is shown in Fig. 1. There is much greater information in the quad pol image as compared to conventional single polarization image. The Interferometric correlation from RISAT will be useful for applications related to land cover, disaster management, DEM, land subsidence or land deformation studies. High-resolution data will of importance for urban planning and growth monitoring, target identification and damage assessment. The hybrid polarimetric data is still an emerging technology for application scientists as compared to linear polarimetry. Thus, advanced techniques or tools are required for recovering precise contributions from isolated and distributed scattering scenarios. Thus labeling of targets could become more precise. Figure below shows a C-band SAR hybrid polarimetric data interpretation based on correlation coefficient and phase difference. Signal is decomposed into surface (even/odd) scattering and volume scattering. These targets are labeled as features for the interpretation purpose. Such results seem to be quite encouraging for hybrid polarimetric SAR application. A typical advantage of the technique is that decomposition is based on physical scattering process of signal. Thus, a precise information about the target is available, which does not require any ground truth. A wide range of incidence angle data in hybrid polarimetry mode has made the satellite superior for many applications like agriculture, soil moisture, environment, forestry etc. The polarimetric mode in conjunctions with interferometry is one of the emerging technique for target height and its characteristics. In the present scenario, technologically challenging task are ahead for the full exploitation of RISAT- SAR application potential, which involves techniques development in signal processing, signal analysis , scientific understanding of signal at various polarization , incidence angle .and image interpretation C-band SAR image covering parts of Dehradun HH, HV, VV RGB Image Forest

C-band HH SAR image

Hybrid Polarimetry image: m -  Decomposition (Even bounce scattering, Volume scattering , Odd bounce scattering) RGB Image

Riverbed

Agril. Fallow Agril. Fields

Settlement

Dr. Shiv Mohan (Ph.D Physics) is the Head, Advanced techniques development division at SAC. He is associated with microwave remote sensing activities of ISRO since early days. He initiated many studies related to microwave applications using ground-based scatterometer, airborne SAR and ERS-1/2, JERS-1, SIR-C etc. He was Dy Project Director of JEP-microwave programme of ISRO. , where a large data set in multi-parameter SAR mode was obtained in joint collaboration with DLR, Germany. During this period, he initiated application development using polarimetric SAR, regional backscattering characteristics using scatterometer. He has worked as Chief Scientists at Haryana State Remote Sensing Centre during 1998 to 2001. Presently, he is PI of ALOS PALSAR data evaluation from JAXA Japan, COSMO-Skymed data evaluation from Italian Space Agency and Chandrayaan-1 Mini SAR data investigation of ISRO. He is also focal person in evolving and execution of RISAT utilization programme of ISRO. He is recipient of ISRS award 1995 for his pioneering contribution in microwave remote sensing applications.

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NEWS & SNIPPETS India‟s First moon Mission Chandrayaan-1, India‟s first moon mission was successfully launched by ISRO‟s PSLV-C11 from SDSC, Sriharikota on October 22, 2008. The moon mission aims to further expand our knowledge about Earth‟s only natural satellite–the moon. Chandrayaan-1 carried 11 payloads (scientific instruments): five instruments (Terrain Mapping Camera, Hyperspectral Imager, Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument, High Energy X-ray Spectrometer and Moon Impact Probe) designed and developed in India, three instruments from European Space Agency (Chandrayaan-1 Imaging X ray Spectrometer, an ESA payload and jointly developed by Rutherford Appleton Laboratory of England and ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore, Smart Near Infrared Spectrometer, Sub kiloelectronvolt Atom Reflecting Analyser), one from Bulgaria (Radiation Dose Monitor) & two from USA (Mini-SAR and Moon Mineralogy Mapper).

ENVIRONMENTAL WATCH Satellites Show Arctic Literally On Thin Ice The latest Arctic sea ice data from NASA and National Snow and Ice Data Center show that the decade-long trend of shrinking sea ice cover is continuing. New evidence from satellite observations also shows that the ice cap is thinning as well. According to researchers from the NSIDC, Boulder, Colorado, the maximum sea ice extent for 2008-09, reached on Feb. 28, was 5.85 million square miles which is 278,000 square miles less than the average extent for 1979 to 2000. Arctic sea ice works like an air conditioner for the global climate system. Ice naturally cools air and water masses, plays a key role in ocean circulation, and reflects solar radiation back into space. In recent years, Arctic sea ice has been declining at a surprising rate. Source: spacemart.com (April 08, 2009)

RISAT-2 placed in the orbit ISRO‟s PSLV-C12 was successfully launched from SDSC, Sriharikota on April 20, 2009. In its fifteenth mission, PSLV successfully placed two satellites - RISAT-2 and ANUSAT in the desired orbit. RISAT-2 is a Radar Imaging Satellite of 300 Kg weight with capability to take images of the earth during day and night as well as cloudy conditions. RISAT-2 has been realized by ISRO in association with Israel Aerospace Industries. This satellite will enhance ISRO‟s capability for earth observation, especially during floods, cyclones, landslides and management of disasters in a more effective way. ANUSAT, a 40 kg micro satellite has been built by Anna University, Chennai. ANUSAT is the first experimental communication satellite built by an Indian University under the overall guidance of ISRO. ANUSAT will demonstrate the technologies related to message store and forward operations. Journal of Indian Society of Remote Sensing is now a Springer publication and made available online since March, 2008. The Journal is published quarterly and now listed by Thomson ISI products, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Currently it is made available free and can be downloaded from: http://www.springer.com/earth+sciences/journal/12524. Interested authors may submit, review and track their manuscript electronically at http://www.editorialmanager.com/isrs. ISPRS WG VIII/6 , GEO Ag 07 03 & ISRS, Joint International Workshop on „Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture‟, December 17 – 18, 2009 Venue: Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad.

For details visit:www.commission8.isprs.org/wg6/ Important Dates Submission of Abstracts Intimation of Acceptance of Abstracts

July 15, 2009

Submission of Full papers

Sept. 30, 2009

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June 30, 2009

Earth Explorer mission GOCE from ESA The Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) was lofted into a near-sunsynchronous, low Earth orbit on 17 March 2009. GOCE is the first of a new family of ESA satellites designed to study our planet and its environment in order to enhance our knowledge and understanding of Earthsystem processes and their evolution, to enable us to address the challenges of global climate change. In particular, GOCE will measure the minute differences in the Earth's gravity field around the globe. It will serve as the reference model for our measurement and modelling of sea-level change, ocean circulation and polar ice cap dynamics. The mission will measure not gravity itself but the tiny differences in gravity between the accelerometer pairs 50 cm apart. The data collected by GOCE will yield accuracy of 1 to 2 cm in the geoid altitude and 1 mGal for the detection of gravity-field anomalies (mountains, for instance, usually cause local gravitational variations ranging from tens of milligals to approximately one hundred). The spatial resolution will be improved from several hundreds or thousands of kilometres on previous missions to 100 km with GOCE. The mapping of the Earth's gravity field with such precision will benefit all branches of Earth science. (ESA, March 2009) ISRS-AC Member Awarded Dr Rajkumar, Scientist at MOG, SAC, Ahmedabad received Hari-om Ashram Prerit Vikram Sarabhai Award for his contributions in the field of Space Applications.

Superannuated Shri Kesar Das Mallick, Senior Scientific Assistant, RESA, SAC, Ahmedabad and life member of ISRS (L-1719) superannuated in March 2009. On behalf of all ISRS-AC members we wish him a healthy and prosperous life ahead.

Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible. --St. Francis of Assisi