IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - December 2019 - 48

FIGURE 21. A guided tour at ISAS/JAXA. Attendees had the
opportunity to get a close look at cutting-edge space technology.
(Source: Masanobu Shibata.)

FIGURE 22. The banner on the school building reads, "Thank you,

2020. The 2019 general chair, Akira Hirose, presented a message and a gift maneki-neko (beckoning cat) to 2020 General
Vice Chair Adriano Camps. The beckoning cat is a token
of good luck, gathering customers/participants with its left
hand (or gathering money if it uses its right hand). In return,
Adriano presented a ukulele to Akira, the sound of which
transformed the hall into Hulihee Palace on the Big Island
of Hawai'i! Then, after a farewell party, the conference successfully concluded with participants enjoying more than
20,000 beautiful fireworks (Figure 19).
-Yu Okada

JAMSTEC and had a guided tour to observe aerospace development, including Hayabusa2, at ISAS/JA X A. Tickets
were limited to 40 for each tour, and both sold out. Attendees enjoyed the special opportunities to visit Japan's
cutting-edge research facilities.
-Kazunori Takahashi
and Shoichiro Kojima

SPECIAL EVENT: IGARSS WORLD CUP
The IGARSS World Cup special event started at dusk on 31
July 2019, with more than 30 players and spectators. We organized four teams with seven players each, and there were
four games, including the final and third-place matches.
The finalist won in a penalty shootout after an extended
game (Figure 20). Everyone was extremely excited! With
first aid and health support available, the event proceeded
safely with no injuries.
-Motofumi Arii
TECHNICAL TOURS
Two technical tours were organized during IGARSS 2019.
On Wednesday, 31 July, there was a half-day tour to the
NICT, where attendees visited facilities for information
and communication research, including space weather
forecasting and remote sensing laboratories. On Friday,
2 August, a full-day tour to the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) and the
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS)/JAXA
(Figure 21). Attendees learned about Japan's contributions
to the development of marine science and technology at

Arahama Elementary School"; it is preserved as an earthquake relic
in a tsunami-affected area.

POSTCONFERENCE SENDAI TOUR
On 3 August, 20 attendees participated in the postconference tour to Sendai. Originally, IGARSS 2011 was planned
to be held in Sendai, but due to the Great East Japan Earthquake and resulting tsunami, the venue was to be moved
to Vancouver. After a short tutorial at Tohoku University
on the disasters, we visited the tsunami-affected area,
including Arahama Elementary School (Figure 22), to
which many children and local people were evacuated
and survived the flood.
-Motoyuki Sato
SUMMARY
We, the LOC members, experienced happy days indeed. We were absorbed in various tasks every day
before and during the symposium, and, even now, we
are still busy with various postconference processes.
We wish to help future IGARSS committees with their
planning and preparation. Please contact us at any
time. Finally, we express our deepest gratitude to all
of the participants!
REFERENCE
[1] A. Moreira, X. Jia, J. Judge, and A. Plaza, "IGARSS in Yokohama,
Japan: Impressions from the first days," IEEE Geosci. Remote Sens.
Mag., vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 8-19, Sept. 2019.

IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING MAGAZINE

DECEMBER 2019

IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - December 2019

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