News
December
14, 2000
Remote Sensing and Environmental Treaties
The director
of the GOFC-GOLD Project Office took part in a recent 2-day
workshop on "Remote Sensing and Environmental Treaties: Building
More Effective Linkages" which was held at the Woodrow Wilson
International Center in Washington, DC. The meeting, organized
by CIESIN, included a keynote speech by David Sandalow, U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State. For further details see http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/rs-treaties/.
November
6, 2000
Miombo and OSFAC reports
GOFC-GOLD
meeting reports for both the Miombo (Southern Africa) and
OSFAC (Central African) regions can now be found under the
Documents section of the web
site.
November
1, 2000
WGCV LPV
The CEOS
Working Group on Calibration and Validation (WGCV) formally
accepted the inclusion of a new subgroup on Land Parameter
Validation (LPV) at their 17th Plenary Meeting
In Gaithersburg, MD. An organizing/planning meting for this
subgroup was held at JRC/SAI in May this year, at which time
they agreed to make the validation of moderate resolution
GOFC-GOLD products their initial focus. For more information
see http://wgcv.ceos.org/.
October
18, 2000
New Organization section
We have
now included an Organization section
to the web site which lists the individuals involved in the
GOFC-GOLD hierarchy.
September
26, 2000
GOFC-GOLD-WGISS Test Facility successfully
introduced
One of
GOFC-GOLD's objectives is to promote international networking
for data access, data sharing, and international collaboration.
The CEOS Working Group on Information Systems and Services
(WGISS) is working closely with GOFC-GOLD scientists to realize
this objective. As part of this endeavour, a Test Facility
(WTF) has been established to demonstrate the use of interoperable
data and services.
At the
recent EO Satellites workshop/WGISS subgroups meetings in
Bangkok Thailand, GOFC-GOLD previewed a prototype of the WTF
to the attendees. Overall, the response to the WTF was very
enthusiastic.
Note:
a description of the meeting and the prototype demonstrations
can be found at: http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/eos_observ/11_12_00/nov_dec00.pdf
(see article on p. 31)
September
11, 2000
GOFC-GOLDBoreal Workshop held in
Russia
Approximately
70 participants from seven countries attended a weeklong workshop
in Novosibirsk, Russia, to discuss the implementation of GOFC-GOLD
in boreal forest regions. The goals of the workshop included
identifying information products derived from satellite data
in boreal forest regions for use by a variety of groups, and
establishing networks to develop and produce such products
on an ongoing basis. Many thanks to the Program and Local
Organizing Committees for arranging this very useful and informative
meeting.
Note:
a synopsis of this meeting can be found at: http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/eos_observ/9_10_00/Sept_Oct00.pdf
(see article on p. 29)
August
22, 2000
IUFRO session
A presentation
on GOFC-GOLD was given at the group session on 'Remote Sensing
and Forest Monitoring' at the 21st IUFRO World
Congress in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month. Papers from the
session, including one describing how IUFRO can play a role
in GOFC-GOLD, are being published by the Institute of Geodesy
and Cartography in Warsaw.
July
27, 2000
Executive Committee minutes
Minutes
from the July Executive Committee telecon have been posted
in the Documents section of the Web
site. Future telecon minutes will also be posted there on
a regular basis.
July
20, 2000
CEOS WGCV Land Product Validation
(LPV) Meeting
The inaugural
meeting of the LPV was held May 23-25, 2000 at the European
Commission Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy. There were
29 attendees at the meeting, including representation from
11 CEOS Member / Associates, SPOT Image and a number of US
and European research organisations. The goal of the new subgroup
will be to promote the quantification and characterization
of satellite-based land surface parameter products, including
better definition of the errors and uncertainties associated
with these products. The meeting provided a forum to share
experiences, develop basic standards for comparisons, and
promote and coordinate international validation activities.
The report on the meeting is available on the WGCV
Web site.
July
14, 2000
Highlights from the first GOFC-GOLD
Scientific and Technical Board meeting
The GOFC-GOLD
Scientific and Technical Board (STB) held its first meeting
in Ottawa from June 21-23, 2000. Thirty-four participants
attended, representing a mix of key space agencies, international
organizations, and national governments. Through this inaugural
meeting, GOFC-GOLD has made a successful transition from a
start-up endeavour to an established international activity,
with a formal organizational structure. GOFC-GOLD has now
become a panel of the Global Terrestrial Observing System
(GTOS) and there is a strong desire by both GTOS and GOFC-GOLD
to work closely together.
July
10, 2000
Frank Ahern, GOFC-GOLD's first Executive
Director, has just retired
Frank
initially planned to retire from CCRS in 1997, but was asked
to stay on in order to oversee the development of GOFC-GOLD.
He set up and single-handedly ran the GOFC-GOLD Project Office
at CCRS, handling all of the internal and external communications
until the office was expanded late last year. It is fair to
say that without Frank's dedication and vision, GOFC-GOLD
would not exist today in its present form. Frank retired as
Executive Director of the GOFC-GOLD Project Office at the
end of June 2000, and his knowledge, good sense, and enthusiasm
will be sorely missed. On behalf of the entire GOFC-GOLD family,
we wish Frank and his wife Doyne a happy, healthy and productive
retirement.
July
5, 2000
GOFC launches its first Newsletter
The first
issue of the "GOFC-GOLD News" is now available. Our current
plan is to produce a new issue every six months. We expect
to be mailing out copies to everyone on our contact list by
mid-July. We are very interested in hearing whether you think
that this newsletter is useful, as well as any suggestions
you have as to how it could be improved. If you don't receive
one, or would like to have additional copies to share with
your colleagues, please let us know. Requests for the newsletter
should be sent to Leander Campbell at the GOFC-GOLD Project
Office (leander.campbell@ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca)
June
19, 2000
Miombo Coordination Meeting
A GOFC-GOLD
Miombo (Southern Africa) Coordination Meeting is to be held
in Maputo, Mozambique on July 20-22, 2000. Check the Calendar
section for more complete information.
June
14, 2000
GOFC-GOLD Boreal Forest Workshop
There
will be a GOFC-GOLD Workshop on Boreal Forests held in Academgorodok,
Novosibirsk, Russia on August 28 - September 1, 2000. Check
the Calendar section for more complete
information.
May
19, 2000
GOFC-GOLD STB meeting
The First
Annual Meeting of The GOFC-GOLD Scientific and Technical Board
(STB) will be held on June 21-23, 2000 in Ottawa, Canada.
Check the Calendar section for more
complete information.
April
20, 2000
Transition to operational organizational
structure
GOFC-GOLD
is in the process of making the transition from its initial
phase to a more formal, international organization. It will
report to the Global Terrestrial Observing System, which is
sponsored by FAO, ICSU, UNEP, UNESCO, and WMO. GOFC-GOLD will
be managed by a Scientific and Technical Board, which will
function like a board of directors, to give guidance and direction
to the Implementation Teams. It will be served by a permanent
Project Office, supported by the Canada Centre for Remote
Sensing and the Canadian Space Agency. NASA will provide a
project liaison officer who will communicate with the Project
Office to ensure coordination of NASA's contribution to GOFC-GOLD.
April
10, 2000
New faces at the GOFC-GOLD Project
Office
Tim Perrott,
an environmental scientist with CCRS' Applications Division,
is now working on GOFC-GOLD on a near full-time basis, and
is taking over responsibility for project communications and
coordination. Leander Campbell, a contract Research Associate,
is the newest member of the team, and will be providing technical
support. A number of other CCRS scientists are contributing
to the Project Office on a part-time basis as required, in
particular Christine Hutton, who is overseeing development
of the GOFC-GOLD Data Site.
April
10, 2000
IGOS Terrestrial Carbon Theme
As reported
previously, the IGOS Partnership has adopted a "themes" approach
which includes a Terrestrial Carbon theme. Within this theme,
GOFC-GOLD is expected to play an important role in helping
to identify, and eventually supply, the observational requirements
of a terrestrial carbon monitoring system. Technical leadership
for developing the terrestrial carbon theme is being provided
by TOPC, the Terrestrial Observation Panel for Climate. A
workshop was held in Ottawa, Canada, February 8 - 11, 2000,
organized and led by TOPC, GTOS, and IGBP. The report resulting
from this workshop is intended to further engage the scientific
community to complete the design of a comprehensive approach
to terrestrial carbon observations.
April
5, 2000
Tropical Networks
The report
of the workshop on Regional Networks for Implementation of
GOFC in the Tropics, hosted by the International START Secretariat,
March 15- 17, 1999 was distributed in late 1999, and can now
be viewed on the GOFC-GOLD web site under the Documents section.
The purpose
of the workshop was to bring together data users from tropical
regions to help design the implementation of GOFC-GOLD in
the tropics.
March
28, 2000
New CEOS WGCV subgroup on biophysical
product validation
In support
of GOFC-GOLD objectives, the CEOS Working Group on Calibration
and Validation has recently established a new subgroup on
biophysical product validation. The co-chairs of this group
are Dr. Jeffrey Privette of the EOS MODIS Land Validation
Program, NASA/Goddard, and Dr. Stefan Dech, German Aerospace
Center (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen. The initial meeting is currently
scheduled to be held May 23-25, 2000 hosted by the Joint Research
Centre of the European Commission, in Ispra, Italy.
March
26, 2000
Boreal Forests workshop
A GOFC-GOLD
Workshop on Boreal Forests is scheduled to be held on August
28 - September 1, 2000 in Novosibirsk, Russia, hosted by the
Russian Academy of Sciences. The goal of this workshop is
to promote a coordinated observational network which will
result in operational monitoring of boreal forest cover on
a continental scale, and make data and information on forests
more usable and accessible. The workshop will focus on the
three themes that have been identified by GOFC-GOLD: forest
cover characteristics and change, forest fire monitoring and
mapping, and forest biophysical processes.
For more
information visit the Calendar section
of this web site.
March
15, 2000
WGISS Supporting GOFC-GOLD
The CEOS
Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS)
has identified GOFC-GOLD as one of the focus activities for
its technical subgroups. These subgroups (Access, Data and
Networks) are hosting a meeting at the University College,
London, April 11-14, 2000. One goal of the meeting is to coordinate
international participation related to the access and exchange
of scientific data products related to GOFC-GOLD. The meeting
will also be used to plan a series of demonstrations of GOFC-GOLD
data exchange using CEOS tools and partner networks.
March
7, 2000
Central Africa workshop
A GOFC-GOLD
Central Africa regional workshop was held February 22-24,
2000 in Libreville, Gabon. The workshop was cosponsored by
EEC-TREES, NASA-START, and USAID-CARPE (Central Africa Regional
Program for the Environment), with the technical support of
START in Washington DC, and ADIE (Agence pour le Développement
de l'Information Environnementale).
Initial
reports are that the meeting was very successful, in terms
of logistics, content and spirit of cooperation. A workshop
report will be written and distributed, and will outline several
proposed projects as well as some recommendations.
View the
Documents section of the GOFC-GOLD
web site for a copy of this report.
February
23, 2000
South East Asia regional meeting
A meeting
of the GOFC-GOLD South East Asia regional network was held
January 31 - February 2, 2000 in Bogor, Indonesia. The meeting
was hosted by the Agency for Assessment and Application of
Technology of Indonesia, a total of 58 participants attended,
from 9 countries. Some of the key objectives were to identify
existing activities in the region, critical information needs,
individuals and organizations able to contribute to future
activities, and regional pilot projects which would generate
a large degree of interest and participation within the individual
countries.
Check
the Documents section for more post-meeting
information.
February
18, 2000
Fire workshop
A major
milestone for GOFC-GOLD implementation was achieved with the
GOFC Forest Fire Monitoring and Mapping workshop, held November
3 - 5, 1999, and hosted by the Space Applications Institute
of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in Ispra,
Italy. 64 participants attended from 23 countries, including
17 participants from 11 developing countries. The participants
were approximately evenly divided between producers and users
of information products from earth-observation data.
An implementation
strategy was developed by the participants. The GOFC-GOLD
Forest Fire Monitoring and Mapping component will be implemented
through the creation of an Implementation Team which will
manage a portfolio of projects. Project areas which were given
high priority were to provide global active fire products
within 24 hours of acquisition, and annual burn scar products.
Contact
the GOFC-GOLD Project Office
for a copy of the Workshop report.
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