IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - March 2021 - 8

CONFERENCE REPORTS
ALBERTO MOREIRA, JASMEET JUDGE, FRANCESCA BOVOLO, AND ANTONIO PLAZA

IGARSS 2020 Virtual Symposium:
Impressions From the First Days

ince the great success of the 2000 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium
(IGARSS), it has been a tradition of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) to organize
the IGARSS Symposium every 10 years in Hawaii. Before the COVID-19 pandemic started, IGARSS 2020
was planned to be held on the Big Island of Hawaii.
The 4,000-mi 2 island has, since 1983, been home to
the world's longest-running and largest active volcano (Mauna Loa) and also 10 of the world's 14 climate
zones. Just imagine the tropical gardens and rain forests,
wildlife, Asian and Polynesian art, black- and whitesand beaches, saltwater lagoons, waterfalls, dolphins,
sea turtles, and much more.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was decided in
June 2020 by the GRSS Administrative Committee (AdCom) to move IGARSS 2020 to a completely online and
virtual symposium (see Figure 1). The expectations were
high due to the huge effort required in reorganizing
the conference setting, technical program, and all the
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MGRS.2020.3039316
Date of current version: 8 March 2021

FIGURE 1. The IGARSS 2020 Symposium. The website was
adapted to the virtual format of the symposium. In a prerecorded video, Paolo Gamba, GRSS president and IGARSS 2020
technical cochair, explained the virtual format of the conference.

planned events and activities during IGARSS 2020 week.
The main theme of the 2020 symposium was " Remote
Sensing: Global Perspectives for Local Solutions, " which
was well reflected in the symposium's plenary session.
The conference turned out to be a huge success, attracting more than 2,500 attendees with 1,800 video
presentations in 20 parallel sessions, offering, as always,
unique perspectives, discussions, research, solutions,
and an opportunity to network in a virtual format. A
novelty was that nonpresenting attendees were able to
register for a nominal fee of US$10 and have access to all
of the presentations and papers; in this way, the virtual
conference was affordable for the entire geoscience and
remote sensing community.
The following are some highlights from the IGARSS
2020 opening and plenary sessions, held on Monday, 28
September. Well before the start of IGARSS 2020, video
recordings of the plenary speakers' talks and the presenting authors were recorded to ensure a professional
and trouble-free flow of sessions throughout the week
of the symposium. All participants have access to all the
presentations and recorded sessions at the symposium's
website: www.igarss2020.org.
WELCOME ADDRESSES AT THE OPENING SESSION
The opening ceremony of IGARSS 2020 started on Monday with introductory remarks by Prof. William J. Emery
(general cochair of the conference), who was born and
raised in Honolulu on the Big Island of Hawaii and was
therefore able to share many things he loves about the island (see Figure 2). After that, he introduced the keynote
speakers and explained the course of the conference.
Prof. Toshio Fukuda (2020 IEEE president and
chief executive officer) gave a warm welcome address
to all attendees (see Figure 3). He emphasized the importance of attracting new members within industry,
young professionals, women in engineering, entrepreneurs, and students. His vision of IEEE is to engage
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING MAGAZINE

MARCH 2021

http://www.igarss2020.org

IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - March 2021

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