IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - June 2015 - 3

from the editor
by Lorenzo bruzzone

elcome to the second issue of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine (GRSM) for
2015. This issue is published at the time of the IEEE
International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium
(IGARSS 2015) to be held on July 26-31 in Milano,
Italy. As usual, this issue is distributed in both digital and electronic versions to all members of the IEEE
Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS).
As previously announced, starting with the September 2015 issue, we will begin publishing special
issues of IEEE GRSM focused on specific themes of
interest for the GRSS community. I encourage you to
take advantage of this opportunity and to submit proposals for special issues directly to me or to contact
me for more information on this opportunity. The
September 2015 Special Issue will focus on the important theme of "Data Fusion in Remote Sensing" and
will be rich in technical content. Then we have already
in process the review of papers related to other two
special issues on key topics in remote sensing. i.e. "Big
Data from Space" and "Machine Learning in Remote
Sensing and the Geosciences". Special issues of GRSM
will alternate with regular issues.
The Features section of this issue includes two
principal contributions. The first article presents an
overview of the Tandem-L/ALOS-Next, which is a
proposal for a highly innovative L-band SAR satellite
mission for the global observation of dynamic
processes on the Earth's surface. The article presents
the mission proposal, including the science and
user requirements, the mission concept, the SAR
instrument, and the observation strategy. The second
contribution addresses the issue of coordinating and
monitoring quality information for the Copernicus
services. The article introduces the Copernicus Space
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MGRS.2015.2442034
Date of publication: 30 July 2015

JUNE 2015

ieee Geoscience and remote sensing magazine

Component Data Access and presents the approach
adopted for managing quality information. This is
addressed by considering a case study for optical data.
The Space Agency column presents an article that
describes in detail the Earth Observation program
of CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales), which
coordinates space activities in France.
The Technical Committee
column presents an article on
the recently updated Earth SciGRSM SepteMbeR iSSue
ence Informatics (ESI) Techniwill focuS on "Data
cal Committee of the GRSS,
which was previously the Data
fuSion in ReMote
Archiving and Distribution TechSenSinG". Do not MiSS it!
nical Committee. The ar ticle illustrates the reasons for
changing the name of the committee and its new goals and principal activities.
The Chapter column describes the activities of both
the New Delhi and the IEEE Metropolitan Los Angeles Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society Chapters.
The Education column presents an article discussing
the Minority Travel Program of GRSS, which aims to
increase the number of minority students involved in
the activities of the Society.
The Book Review column presents an overview of
the book Remote Sensing Imagery, edited by Florence
Tupin, Jordi Inglada, and Jean-Marie Nicolas and published by Wiley-ISTE in 2014. The review of this book
was written by Dr. Mathieu Fauvel of the National
Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse (ENSAT - University
of Toulouse), France.
The Distinguished Lecturer Program column presents
a short article that describes this program, which provides GRSS Chapters with seminars by experts on topics of interest and importance to the geoscience and
remote sensing community. The article also includes
the current portfolio of GRSS Distinguished Speakers.
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - June 2015