Spatial Signals

Geoff Bland, Andy Henry, Lisa Ogiemwonyi, and Sallie Smith from the NASA AREN (Aerokats and Rover Education Network) team join us to talk about the beginnings of the AREN project, Aerokats and remote sensing via kites, flying the first educational UAS with sensors on the Channel Islands of California, RSESTeP, ICARUS, incorporating remote sensing into K-12 classrooms, place-based education, the development of Aeropods, the various camera systems and sensors that can be used on Aeropods, high resolution imagery from kites, looking at change over time in imagery, collecting air quality data, teacher training in the AREN workshops, local community...

Robbyn Abbitt from Miami University joins us to talk about working at an underground storage tank unit in Indiana, planning to work outside in Idaho but being assigned to an indoor GIS lab, the concept of lumping and splitting, getting hired as the GIS Coordinator for Miami University, the Ohio GIS Conference, Robbyn’s work with the original Gap Analysis Program and NHD, the Blue Line Program, the OGRIP Council, using drones in the classroom, digital twins, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Happy Earth Observation Day, everyone!  Our guests for this special Earth Science Week episode are Rebecca Dodge of Midwestern State University and Tom Mueller from the Massachusetts Bureau of Geographic Information (MassGIS), the founding parents of Earth Observation Day which is celebrated this week.  We delve into how Earth Observation Day came about, how it's grown, materials that have been developed over the years, and what’s happening around the country with it.  We also touch on current EOD activities such as the NASA Aerokats, Mapathons, Landsat imagery, data collection with your phone, and much more.  Show notes and photos...

Forrest Bowlick from University of Massachusetts-Amherst joins us to talk about finding Svalbard on a globe at two years old, National Geographic Bees, a life-changing locked door, the McNair Scholars Program, taking Introduction to GIS three different times, the scholarship of teaching and learning, Forrest giving a TED talk on GIS, the development of MassachusettsView, the Geographer’s Craft, strategies for teaching GIS and incorporating new developments, teaching projections in a GIS course, a Roger Tomlinson documentary, the Impossible Map from 1947, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Joe Ortiz from Kent State University joins us to talk about using micro-fossils to learn about how climate changes over time, the Beaver-SCAT instrumentation, spending two months at sea in the North Atlantic, remote sensing and collecting sediment cores at sea, research at the Bering Strait, spending 3 days stuck in the ice, strategies for avoiding polar bears, identifying algae from space, harmful algal blooms, machine learning techniques, the benefits of open-source software for remote sensing and analysis, and multispectral UAS imagery analysis.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Greg Bonynge from the University of Rhode Island joins us to talk about working on a Alpaca farm in Pennsylvania, an internship with the USDA forest service, modeling the spread of the southern pine beetle, spatial statistics, working at a neuroscience lab, being a beta-tester for ModelBuilder, land cover change in Tanzania, SSEER (Scientific Support for Environmental Emergency Response), ingesting GIS data and documenting metadata, GIS data archiving, ArcGIS Indoors, indoor scanning with lidar for creating 3D building models, and hurricane response and modeling potential flood and wind impacts.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.co...

Carter Wang from Towson University joins us to talk about his introduction to Google Earth in high school in China, urban heat islands in Arizona, MarylandView, the AmericaView Journal of Earth Observation and Geospatial Applications, the annual Geospatial Technology Summer Camp at Towson University, urban forestry analysis, land cover change related to tree loss, NAIP imagery, and the AAG remote sensing specialty group.  Show notes are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Scott Powell from Montana State University joins us to talk about Scott’s work at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas, mapping cave openings in the Carlsbad Caverns area, Scott’s time as a firefighter fighting wildfires, Landsat imagery time series printouts, the Oregon Cascades. geologic carbon sequestration, using aerial hyperspectral sensors for detecting leaking carbon emissions, drone applications and imagery acquisition, CART decision trees, MontanaView, and much more.  Show notes are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Larry Biehl from Purdue University joins us to talk about a prophetic high school paper about computer applications in farming, the Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing (LARS), Skylab, the development of MultiSpec, the vision to keep MultiSpec free and available, the Terrestrial Observatory, the birth of IndianaView, Useful 2 Usable, remote sensing agricultural applications, spectrometers and radiometers, and the importance of data calibration.  Show notes are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Tom Mueller from the Massachusetts Bureau of Geographic Information (MassGIS) joins us to talk about Pchem ending Tom’s time as a Chemistry major, building an atlas of nursing homes, the importance of service learning for students, the GeoTech Center, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap, Mapathons, mapping and analysis of water samples and contamination, MassGIS, the Massachusetts Spatial Data Infrastructure, the birth of MassachusettsView, the Cohasset Center for Coastal Student Research and much more.  Show notes are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Lance Yarbrough from the University of Mississippi joins us to talk about an encounter with a Floyd Sabins textbook at a university book sale at a young age, examining geology through stereopairs, the Year of the Satellite, remote sensing application in North Dakota. lidar data analysis, 3D models and Structure from Motion, GeoAI tools, the appeal of retro analog maps and tools, giving expert witness testimony in court, and much more.  Show notes are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Kyle Fredrick from PennWest University - California joins us to talk about teaching a middle-school class in college, groundwater modeling, user-friendly vs. user-surly software, his fantastic geologic mapping summer field class that he teaches each year, remote sensing of Utah landscapes, the growth of the sand spit and new habitats at Presque Isle in Erie, and the potential for critical and rare-earth mineral extraction from coal waste piles.  Show notes are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

This is Round One of our special “Squared Circle” episodes, where a group of guests gets together to wrestle with a particular topic. For this episode, we're joined by Dr. Aaron Maxwell from West Virginia University, Dr. Bruce Millett from South Dakota State University, Dr. Dana Peterson from the University of Kansas, and Dr. Doug Ramsey from Utah State University, and we’re discussing all things Landsat Next. We talk about what everyone is most looking forward to with the upcoming launch of Landsat Next, how its new and improved capabilities over the previous Landsat satellites will impact data collec...

Dana Peterson from the University of Kansas joins us to talk about the Yellow Pages of class descriptions, the Kansas Biological Survey, archiving Landsat imagery from 9-Track Tapes, spectroradiometers, watersheds and green-up, field work on the Rio Grande, the Sentinel GreenReport that leverages Sentinel-2 imagery for vegetation monitoring over time, eastern red cedar woody encroachment, and mapping and collecting data for invasive species analysis.  Show notes are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Kevin Czajkowski from the University of Toledo joins us to talk about snow days, a heat wave summer, an internship with the National Weather Service, space plasma physics, the revelation of getting paid to go to graduate school, the ups and downs of academic job applications, the perils of looking like a geographer, receiving the NASA New Investigator grant, soil moisture sampling and the SMAP project, taking your son with you for fieldwork, having sensors eaten by cows, GLOBE Mission Earth, Kevin’s work philosophy, the early days of OhioView, air quality satellites and analysis, and much more.  Show not...

Amy Logan from Iowa State University joins us to talk about her borrowing a car in her college days in order to intern at the Northeast Iowa Resource and Conservation Development office, a big orange GPS backpack for mapping, community and regional planning, using ArcPad for tree mapping, OpenStreetMap, Iowa As Art, analyzing patterns in nature, Amy being the recipient of the NCGE’s 2024 Outstanding Support for Geography Education Award, involving art teachers with remote sensing imagery, and lesson plans for K-12 teachers.  Show notes are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Bruce Millett from South Dakota State University joins us to talk about Bruce’s service in the US Navy as a weather observer and remote sensing, working on a SMQ-10 for satellite tracking, DIME files, Selective Availability and GPS accuracy, moving from the coast to South Dakota, wetlands simulation modeling, the impact and collaboration of the AmericaView network, workforce development, precision agriculture with UAS, and remote sensing analysis for surface water change.  Show notes are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Bobbi Lenczowski, formerly of the National Geospatial-lntelligence Agency (NGA), joins us for a discussion of the highlights of her all-star career with her time at the Defense Mapping Agency, gathering early map data and the progression of geospatial technology, data classification and data management techniques, development of the first digital global digital map made from scanning paper maps, Bobbi’s time as Executive Director of AmericaView, her service with ASPRS, as well as her involvement with multiple geospatial initiatives in the St. Louis area, including NGA, GeoFutures, and drone training for high school students.  Show notes are available at:  http...

Donna Delparte from Idaho State University joins us to talk about the circuitous route that took her from Regina, Canada through many different locales to finally end up in Pocatello, Idaho.  We also talk about hazard mapping for back country skiing, underwater GIS and remote sensing, using drones for precision agriculture for detecting Potato virus Y, using drone-based lidar for mapping slope susceptibility related to landslides, workshops at the Craters of the Moon, and monitoring golden eagle nesting activity. Show notes are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Tracy DeLiberty from the University of Delaware joins us to talk about remote sensing of deserts and arid lands, the good old days of X-terms and command-line GIS, teaching high school students with remotely sensed imagery, analyzing irrigation across Delaware, studying sea ice thickness at the north and south poles and much more.  Show notes are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Courtney Poirier Chicola from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette joins us for a discussion that begins with Jurassic Park, 4-H, and her dashed dreams of being a paleontologist, and then delves into Earth As Art, teaching through art, Pecora 2022, the Rising Waters workshop, NASA Aerokats, teaching Python and GeoAI in ArcGIS, and the evolution of image classification methods and accuracy issues.  Show notes are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Robin McNeely from Iowa State University joins us for a discussion that begins with a blast from the past about AutoCAD, PC Arc/Info, UNIX, Sun Stations, and digitizing tables, and then delves into building a land cover dataset for Iowa, landscape ecology, Robin’s family connection with the Army Corps of Engineers, nutrient management, analyzing agriculture impacts with imagery, and teacher training workshops.  Show notes are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Rebecca Dodge from Midwestern State University joins us for a discussion about geology, ERTS (later known as Landsat 1), photographs from Skylab, working in the oil industry, Rebecca's extensive work with AmericaView including her time as its Executive Director, Texas As Art, remote sensing at the El Paso Science Festival, and the development of Earth Observation Day.  Show notes are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Rodney Yantis from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette joins us to talk about majoring in landscape ecology, Earth As Art, the International Charter Space and Major Disasters, geospatial first responders, the role of remote sensing in hurricane preparedness and monitoring, support for the Louisiana Army National Guard programs, the Rising Water workshop program, and planning for colonies on the moon.  Show notes are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Lindi Quackenbush from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry joins us for a an academic adventure that begins in Melbourne, Australia, continues on to Maine, and then ends up in New York.  We also talk about AML, land surveying, feature extraction, the power and importance of a national network of scholars and researchers like AmericaView, Lindi’s time as a director of the AmericaView board as well as her academic leadership and research at SUNY ESF.  Show notes are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Doug Ramsey from Utah State University joins us to talk about rangeland ecology, field work and understanding the dynamics on the ground when doing remote sensing, the Southwest Gap Analysis project, and extracting land cover maps from Landsat imagery.  Show notes are available are:  https://americaview.substack.com

Russ Congalton from the University of New Hampshire joins us to talk about wanting to go into space, taking Organic Chemistry just for fun, teaching at Berkeley, working with the GLOBE program, remote sensing accuracy assessment, studying cyanobacteria in New Hampshire lakes and ponds, being the recipient of the William T. Pecora award, and much more.  Show notes are available are:  https://americaview.substack.com

John McGee from Virginia Tech University joins us for a discussion that starts off at a river with crocodiles and a solar powered GIS lab in Zambia, then continues on to finding drones in the grocery store then again at a gas station, UAS analysis today, precision agriculture and geospatial technology, the Landsat program, and the impact of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on drones and education today.  Show notes are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Aaron Maxwell from West Virginia University joins us to talk about mining reclamation, large scale land cover changes, open source spatial analytics, data wrangling, learning programming, the benefits of ChatGPT for coding and troubleshooting, AI being a helpful research assistant, and a whole lot more.  Show notes for this episode are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

This first episode of Spatial Signals looks at the origin of the AmericaView consortium - how the OhioView consortium started in the state of Ohio and then evolved into the national AmericaView program.  Our guests for this origin story are Kevin Czajkowski from OhioView and Mary O'Neill from SouthDakotaView.  Show notes for this first episode are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com/.