As Steering Committee Chairman of the Pecora 15 and Land Satellite Information IV Conference I am pleased you have joined us for an important technical exchange. We will examine a full range of issues around the theme of “Integrating Remote Sensing at the Global, Regional, and Local Scale.”

This year the Pecora Conference has again merged with the Land Satellite Information technical meeting. Making our conference even more unique, we are holding it in conjunction with the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Commission I Mid-term Symposium. Two additional remote sensing conferences have merged into our action-packed week: (1) the Remote Sensing for Transportation Conference appears as a technical program track, and (2) the symposia on Future Intelligent Earth Observing Satellites is combined with the ISPRS Commission 1 Working Group 4 program. All are seamlessly combined to enhance the overall conference experience for participants.

The overall conference goal is to transfer knowledge about satellite data from successful innovators to users and potential users. The targeted audience for this conference is the end user, the professional facing an information problem that potentially can be served by satellite data. The targeted audience for the ISPRS Commission I Mid-term Symposium is the platform, sensor, and image specialist. Workshops, tutorials, general and technical sessions, working group discussions, exhibits, and a supplemental classified session are being offered.

The remote sensing discipline is facing many challenges and opportunities in the next few years. On behalf of the conference and symposium planning groups, I welcome you to what promises to be a premier remote sensing event.

The United States hosted Commission-I during the ISPRS quadrennial 1968-1972. Dr. M.B. Scher was its President in those days, and the Commission’s responsibilities related primarily to Aerial Photography and Navigation. His Commission ended the very year and month that Landsat-1 inaugurated the satellite era for civilian Earth observations. Today, Commission-I focuses on sensors (cameras and scanners), platforms (airborne and spaceborne) and imagery (both analog and digital). This mid-term symposium marks the 30th anniversary of the Landsat Program, and the United States is pleased once again to host this very important Commission.

The U.S. has always been a leader in developing aerial and satellite systems to record the progress of human endeavors and our environmental impacts. In the three decades since Landsat-1 was launched, the technology has spread to many space-faring nations, as well as from strictly government-owned to both government and privately owned systems. Spatial resolution has improved steadily from 80 meters to less than one meter; radiometry has improved from six-bit to 12-bit accuracy; and spectral resolution has improved from four channels to more than 50 channels.

This combined ISPRS/Pecora Conference integrates the interests of all remote sensing specialists. Commission-I focuses on sensors, platforms, and imagery with a special subset of sessions on Future Intelligent Earth Observing Satellites (FIEOS) organized by Old Dominion University and George Mason University under the auspices of WGI/4. All conference registrants are invited to participate in all of the technical and poster sessions, and through this to enjoy the widest experience possible.

All of the Commission’s working groups have worked hard to develop a comprehensive program to meet the needs of our international colleagues. We welcome you and look forward to a successful and rewarding meeting.

I am pleased to add my welcome and thank you for joining us for this important joint event. As we continue to face unprecedented challenges to preserve the existing transportation system and to take on new missions, a variety of advanced technologies are becoming available to enhance planning, designing, operating, and maintaining all modes of transportation.

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) Remote Sensing for Transportation Conference shares with other events the goal of transferring a comprehensive knowledge package about the use of satellite data for successful innovators both current and potential.

The Remote Sensing portion of the conference builds on the successful 2000 and 2001 Remote Sensing for Transportation Conferences. We continue to focus on the use of space age technologies in managing and monitoring traffic flow, expediting transportation project delivery, providing system security and emergency response, and infrastructure management. This conference presents an excellent opportunity for us to: 1) enhance communication between the transportation and remote sensing communities; 2) develop a common understanding of current successful remote sensing transportation applications; and, 3) maximize knowledge gained by attending three events for the price of one.

I hope you will participate actively and come away from this conference seeing new possibilities in this exciting field!