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The global Earth Observations, remote sensing, geoscience, environmental and applied science communities celebrated the successful launch of LANDSAT 9 on Sept. 27, 2021. LANDSAT 1 (originally named...

During our long history of 35 years of publication, Geocarto International’s primary mission has been to publish research focused on Earth observations and GIS with an emphasis on disseminating thi...

Mortality from extreme heat is a leading cause of weather-related fatality, which is expected to increase in frequency with future climate scenarios. This study examines the spatiotemporal variations in heat-related health risk in three Midwestern cities in the USA between the years 1990 to 2010; cities include Chicago, Illinois, Indianapolis, IN and Dayton, OH. In order to examine these variations, we utilize the recently developed extreme heat vulnerability index (EHVI) that uses a principal components solution to vulnerability. The EHVI incorporates data from the US Decadal Census and remotely sensed variables to determine heat-related vulnerability at an intra-urban level (census block group). The results demonstrate significant spatiotemporal variations in heat health risk within the cities involved.

The Amazon Information System (AIS) developed at Indiana State University/Indiana University is a comprehensive geographic information system that was created to catalog, query, analyze, model, and modify spatial data collected during long term Amazon research and complements new data in a project funded by NASA's Large‐Scale Biosphere Atmosphere Ecology Program (LBA). The AIS incorporates algorithms from sources such as ARC/INFO, ERDAS Imagine, Oracle, STATISTICA, and Visual Basic, and it allows seamless raster and vector data integration. Although the AIS was originally designed for just one of the projects in LBA, NASA requested that it be made available for use in other projects in this program as well. This will enable data to be shared among the various projects in LBA and provide a more synoptic view of the many changes that are occurring in the Amazon Basin. Currently, the system brings together land cover data collected since 1991; particularly involving species level inventories of seco...

This paper is a selected overview of the contribution of American geographers in the development of remote sensing, highlighting the role of the Remote Sensing Specialty Group (RSSG) of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), on the occasion of the centennial of the AAG. The RSSG was formed in the late 1970s, with Benjamin Richason, of Carroll College, as the first Chair. The RSSG grew rapidly from approximately 200 members in 1981, to just under 500 members in 1988, a level at which it has subsequently remained relatively stable. The RSSG was the fourth largest specialty group in the AAG throughout much of the late 1980s, and since 1999 has consistently been the third largest group, behind the GIS and Urban Geography Specialty Groups. The RSSG Outstanding Contributions in Remote Sensing Award has been presented annually since 1992. In 2004, in honor of the centennial of the AAG, the RSSG is instituting a new award, the Early Career Award in Remote Sensing.

It has been well established that neural networks provide a reasonable and powerful alternative to conventional classifiers. During the past few years there has been a large and energetic upswing in research efforts aimed at synthesizing fuzzy logic with neural networks. This combination of fuzzy logic and neural networks seems natural because two approaches generally attack the design of “intelligent” systems from quite different angles. Neural networks provide algorithms for learning, classification, and optimization whereas fuzzy logic deals with issues such as reasoning on a higher (semantic or linguistic) level. Consequently the two technologies complement each other. In this paper we propose two novel fuzzy‐neural network models for supervised learning. The first model consists of three layers, and the second model consists of four layers. In both models, the first two layers implement fuzzy membership functions and the remaining layers implement the inference engine. Both models use the gr...

(1996). Earth observations during space shuttle mission sts‐69 Endeavour's Images of Earth (September 7–18, 1995) Geocarto International: Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 91-104.

Because changes in the Earth's environment have become major global issues, continuous, longterm scientific information is required to assess global problems such as deforestation, desertification, greenhouse effects and climate variations. Global change studies require understanding of interactions of complex processes regulating the Earth system. Space-based Earth observation is an essential element in global change research for documenting changes in Earth environment. It provides synoptic data for conceptual predictive modeling of future environmental change. This paper provides a brief overview of remote sensing technology from the perspective of global change research.

This research attempts to map small-scale vegetation changes in Mexico. Forty-eight weeks of coarse resolution Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), a digitized climax vegetation map, land cover samples from space shuttle photographs and actual vegetation samples were used as inputs. Principal components analyses and a clustering algorithm were applied to the NDVI data to generate a single layer that was stratified by the climax vegetation zones map. The purpose is to create a new layer that differentiates climax vegetation (hypothesized potential vegetation) from non-climax vegetation land covers. One of the keys to developing a present-day vegetation map was differentiating intrazone land covers based on the stratification; as great as 75% of the sampled land cover types differed from the climax vegetation. The present-day vegetation map achieved 80% classification accuracy when calculated from available ground reference data. About 55% of the temperate zones and 37% of the tropical zones were found to contain original climax vegetation. Most changes coincide with areas of major agricultural activity.

A review of the imagery acquired during the STS 50 mission of the Space Shuttle is presented. The earth viewing photography from this flight includes photos of dust plumes over several portions of the Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean. Over land, prominent dust plumes were seen over Iraq, North Africa, Sudan, and West Africa. The color infrared photography includes images of the tropical rain forests of South America and South and Southeast Asia. Other examples include photographs of floods in Argentina, photos of Lake Chad in Africa, Coastal Madagascar, the Aswan dam and the Nile, geologic features of North Africa, the center pivot irrigation land areas of Saudi Arabia, flooding in Asian rivers, and sediment plumes of South American and South and Southeast Asian coasts.

A description is presented of the activities and results of the Space Shuttle mission STS-45, known as the Mission to Planet Earth. Observations of Mount St. Helens, Manila Bay and Mt. Pinatubo, the Great Salt Lake, the Aral Sea, and the Siberian cities of Troitsk and Kuybyshev are examined. The geological features and effects of human activity seen in photographs of these areas are pointed out.

Ramgarh Crater, Rajasthan, India is a potential impact crater that has not been studied so far. The proximity of Ramgarh Crater to the Deccan flood basalt terrain makes it important to examine the spatial and temporal relationship of this crater to Deccan Volcanism because recent studies propose a strong link between impact cratering and major flood basalt eruptions. A detailed multidisciplinary study is necessary to evaluate the structure and lithology of Ramgarh Crater and its temporal relationship to the emplacement of Deccan eruptions in India. Application of the IRS-IA data to study the lithologic/surface characteristics of Ramgarh Crater (attempted for the first time) indicates the potential application of remote sensing data in these studies. The IRS-IA data are of good quality and resolution. Our preliminary assessment has shown that these data are helpful in generating lithology soil vegetation profiles of Ramgarh Crater region. These 'profile maps' would be useful for targeting the specific areas in the region for a closer look and ground truth verification during the field work and sample collection in the region.

Some of the most significant earth-viewing imagery obtained during Space Shuttle Columbia's flight STS-35, December 2-10, 1990, is reviewed with emphasis on observations of the Southern Hemisphere. In particular, attention is given to environmental observations in areas of Madagascar, Brazil, and Persian Gulf; observation of land resources (Namibia, offshore Australia); and observations of ocean islands (Phillipines, Indonesia, and Reunion). Some of the photographs are included.

Images taken aboard the Space Shuttle flight STS-31 are presented and discussed in terms of documenting key features and describing regional interrelationships. The images comprise regional views and continuous swath maps that are intended to serve as linkage and/or context for related photographs in the shuttle database. The Linhof hand-held mapping camera is employed at 20-s intervals resulting in contiguous swaths with 75-percent overlap, and Hasselblad images are taken simultaneously to complement the swaths. Specific examples of the products are given for regions including Lake Eyre, Australia, Madagascar, and Central America; specific landforms are also shown including the El Chichon volcano, and an example is shown of the differential heating of land and water. The photographs are considered useful for mapping large-scale features and for providing context for smaller image-data products.

Consideration is given to initial observations on the Kuwaiti oilfield fires and the spatial and areal extent of these smoke palls as viewed from the Space Shuttle flights during April/May 1991. It is concluded that one of the early lessons learned from Kuwaiti oilfield fires is that the presence of intelligent observers on orbit is of great value for acquiring data and confirm/deny events.

An overview of space flight STS-41 is presented, including personal observations and comments by the mission astronauts. The crew deployed the Ulysses spacecraft to study the polar regions of the sun and the interplanetary space above the poles. Environmental observations, including those of Lake Turkana, Lake Chad, biomass burning in Madagascar and Argentina, and circular features in Yucatan are described. Observations that include landforms and geology, continental sedimentation, desert landscapes, and river morphology are discussed.