934
October 2014
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
upon challenges and the future for remote sensing of energy
fluxes and soil moisture. With the soil moisture active passive
(SMAP) sensor set to launch in October 2014 this chapter
becomes very pertinent. The authors mention SMAP and
provide some information about this new mission. To be fair,
during the authorship period of this book (which can require
years of preparation) far less was known about SMAP than is
currently known and any attempt to provide additional details
would have likely been only conjecture. The extent to which
the authors cover SMAP is sufficient and certainly important
to inform the reader of this still future technology.
E
valuation
Like most other scientists, I am a frequent browser of new
books that I might use to help me keep current in my field
and/or acquire the authoritative opinion and wisdom of others.
This book,
Remote Sensing of Energy Fluxes and Soil Moisture
Content,
satisfies the latter niche by providing the reader with
not only a good review of the underlying physics of energy
flux and the ecology of soil moisture but also numerous case
studies spanning a wide breadth of applications. This is not a
text that one would necessary read cover to cover but instead
it is in many ways a good reference (section one) with splendid
applications chapters (sections two and three) that will appeal
to a variety of readers. In summary, this book covers what its
title suggests and will not disappoint you.
CORONA must have been highly innovative for its time,
and perhaps risky, too. What convinced decision-makers
to take the chance?
I would think the concept of “mutual destruction” was the
impetus for such intelligence behavior among the allies as
well as the Iron Curtain. Nuclear weapons, ICBM delivery
systems, and saber rattling were powerful motivations for
decision-makers at the time. I doubt that the leadership
in Washington had any misgivings over their decisions to
authorize, fund, and implement the CORONA program. Once
operational, there were few failures, and the results certainly
imparted a “warm and fuzzy” feeling to the intelligence
community.
If you can say, what was the first image from CORONA
that you personally saw, and what did you think of it?
I was ushered into a small room at Army Map Service, an
Intelligence Officer opened a large album-sized book on a
table and there was a satellite photo of the Tyuratam ICBM
complex in Kazakhstan. A large area some kilometers in size
had the missile silo covers open for display to our satellite,
and the Officer pointed to one particular silo with a pointy
missile cone visible inside and said to me, “that’s the one
pointed at us here in Washington, D. C.” I still can feel the
cold shiver that ran up and down my spine. He certainly
got my attention. I was then read a long list of threats of
what would be done to me if I ever divulged any information
regarding anything that happened in connection with the
program. The entire time that I was cleared, I never heard
that the program name was CORONA. Guess that I didn’t
have the need to know. I’m glad that President Clinton
ordered the imagery declassified, it’s being put to good use
for environmental baseline references.
Was it hard to be involved in such an exciting project, but
not be able to talk to anybody about it?
Not really because the community of professionals working
at Army Map Service and its reorganization as Army
Topographic Command (TOPOCOM) was so large. The work
was so technical and so advanced that photogrammetrists
employed in commercial aerial mapping would not have
had a prayer of understanding of what we were doing.
Actually, it’s still amusing to read some of the cutting-edge
“discoveries” being published in
PE&RS
nowadays. We
used to do that stuff 40 years ago! We just couldn’t publish
it. Closest anyone got to publishing a hint of what was going
on was when the fantastic processes and instruments for
the Apollo Lunar Mapping Program were briefly alluded
to in
PE&RS
. I published a little material in
The Military
Engineer
about the equipment because the Commanding
General ordered me to do it. I remember some of the
exclamations made at TOPOCOM by un-cleared personnel
regarding the NASA photogrammetric instruments during
lunch in Erskine Hall … cleared buddies and I would
just roll our eyes and say nothing at all. It’s all being “re-
discovered” nowadays.
If you could go back in time, to the beginning of your
career, what one piece of advice would you give your
young self?
Stay focused on your chosen career, and let experienced
seniors advise you on your future path. I was blessed
with the friendship and interest of many people that were
retiring, and they gave me their entire photogrammetric
and geodetic libraries. With duplicate issues I was able
to fill-in gaps in my
PE&RS
collection as well as various
editions of photogrammetric texts and geodetic reference
works. Anyone can collect this rare material, but you
actually do have to read it once acquired.
If your young self could time-travel to the present, what
do you think would surprise him?
Computer power. I remember getting chewed out for shutting
down an entire division of over 1,000 engineers because I
submitted a 100-photo block for adjustment to the main
frame computer. I was later forced to make appointments to
run blocks only after midnight on Saturday nights. People
nowadays have never heard of 24-hour turnaround. What’s
a punch-card machine? Patch panels for programming how
to swap columns on punch card decks? Windows? iOS?
Pixels?
