Chapter 31
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
M. M. Verstraete (1) and M. Menenti (2, 3)
(1) Space Applications Institute, Ispra, Italy, (2) The Winand Staring Centre for Integrated Land,
Soil and Water Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands and (3) Université Louis Pasteur,
Illkirch, France.
This first ENAMORS conference provided a stimulating environment to
discuss the challenges and opportunities provided by the upcoming
generation of space sensors. This book constitutes the formal proceedings of
that workshop. Additional information on the activities and achievement of
this Concerted Action is available from the ENAMORS World Wide Web
site (http://www.enamors.org/). The main conclusions of the
meeting were as follows:
1. The participants expressed concern about the state of preparations in
Europe to effectively address the scientific and technical issues arising
from the upcoming new generation of space sensors to be operated by
national and international agencies. While considerable efforts have
been made to design and launch hardware in space, it was felt that
insufficient attention and resources have been dedicated to the technical
issues of acquiring, archiving, and distributing data and information in
Europe, to the thorny issue of effectively translating radiance
measurements made in space into useful information usable in practical
applications, and to stimulating basic and applied research in support of
the long term development of this economic sector in the coming
decade.
Specifically, the participants endorsed and amplified a point eloquently
stressed by John MacDonald concerning the large knowledge gap
between the scientists and engineers developing the space platforms and
sensors on one side, and the actual ‘end users’ of Earth Observation
2.
329
M.M. Verstraete et al. (eds.), Observing Land from Space: Science, Customers and Technology, 329–332.
© 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
M. M. Verstraete (1) and M. Menenti (2, 3)
(1) Space Applications Institute, Ispra, Italy, (2) The Winand Staring Centre for Integrated Land,
Soil and Water Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands and (3) Université Louis Pasteur,
Illkirch, France.
This first ENAMORS conference provided a stimulating environment to
discuss the challenges and opportunities provided by the upcoming
generation of space sensors. This book constitutes the formal proceedings of
that workshop. Additional information on the activities and achievement of
this Concerted Action is available from the ENAMORS World Wide Web
site (http://www.enamors.org/). The main conclusions of the
meeting were as follows:
1. The participants expressed concern about the state of preparations in
Europe to effectively address the scientific and technical issues arising
from the upcoming new generation of space sensors to be operated by
national and international agencies. While considerable efforts have
been made to design and launch hardware in space, it was felt that
insufficient attention and resources have been dedicated to the technical
issues of acquiring, archiving, and distributing data and information in
Europe, to the thorny issue of effectively translating radiance
measurements made in space into useful information usable in practical
applications, and to stimulating basic and applied research in support of
the long term development of this economic sector in the coming
decade.
Specifically, the participants endorsed and amplified a point eloquently
stressed by John MacDonald concerning the large knowledge gap
between the scientists and engineers developing the space platforms and
sensors on one side, and the actual ‘end users’ of Earth Observation
2.
329
M.M. Verstraete et al. (eds.), Observing Land from Space: Science, Customers and Technology, 329–332.
© 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.