PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
January 2016
19
In Memoriam
A
tef
A
hmed
E
l
S
ayed
E
lassal
1933-2015
Atef Ahmed El Sayed Elassal, 81, passed away onAugust 17, 2015
in Fort Myers, Florida. He was born in Egypt and completed his
engineering degree at the University of Cairo. He received his
MS and PhD degrees in Photogrammetry from the University
of Illinois in 1961 and 1963 respectively. Atef’s dissertation
was some of the earliest work in analytical aerial triangulation
through simultaneous relative orientation of multiple cameras.
Dr. Elassal began his career in private industry with
Autometric, Inc., a part of Raytheon Corporation, then entered
government service with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
During the 1970’s he worked at the USGS headquarters in
the Office of Research and Technical Standard’s Branch of
Photogrammetry and, using his skills in photogrammetry and
computer science, he introduced analytical photogrammetry
techniques into the USGS’s topographic mapping process. In
1979, Dr. Elassal was assigned to the Digital Applications Team
that was responsible for transforming the USGS analog mapping
process to digital techniques. Dr. Elassal was responsible for
establishing the initial data structures for both planimetric
data and elevation data through the Digital Line Graph (DLG)
and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) formats and established
the National Digital Cartographic Database for storing and
distributing digital data.
Dr. Elassal was active in ASPRS and was among the early
pioneers in developing analytical aerotriangulation systems;
notably the Multiple Station Analytical Triangulation (MUSAT)
method. He was a member of the Birdeye Club through his
donations to the ASPRS Foundation. Dr. Elassal was also active
in ISPRS and served as Chair of Working Group II/5, Integrated
Production Systems. He was responsible for developing the
General Integrated Analytical Triangulation Program (GIANT)
used by USGS. In 1980, Dr. Elassal developed the General
Cartographic Transformation Package (GCTP) which was an
integrated set of programs to handle map projection compu-
tations for digital mapping applications. GCTP was used by
several government agencies as well as by private industry. Dr.
Elassal received ASPRS’s Photogrammetric Award (Fairchild)
in 1977.
A Google search will indicate that Dr. Elassal was the
author of numerous papers and agency publications and he is
referenced by many others. As the senior photogrammetrist at
USGS, he provided technical assistance to many other Federal
agencies and private companies for both aerial and satellite
applications. Many of these requests were new and novel tasks
that required the expert application of analytical methods. One
interesting project was his work in 1978 when the U.S. House of
Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations requested
USGS assistance in their investigation of the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy. The assistance involved photo-
grammetric analyses of movie film and several snapshots. The
snapshots were of Lee Harvey Oswald in the backyard of his
home in Dallas in 1963, and the movie films were taken during
the assassination by two separate bystanders.
In the mid-1980’s, Dr. Elassal was selected as the Chief of
Photogrammetric Research at NOAA’s National Ocean Service
(NOS). While at NOAA he was responsible for developing the
Integrated Digital Photogrammetric Facility (IDPF) which was
the underlying system that drove a network of photogrammetric
devices using a common database. Dr. Elassal received the
Department of Commerce’s Silver Medal Award for scientific/
engineering achievement in developing the IDPF system for
the agency in 1989. He also received the Washington Academy
of Sciences Mathematics and Computer Science award in 1989.
Dr. Elassal retired from NOAA in 1995. He is survived by
his wife Randi and their daughter. And also by two sons and
a daughter from previous marriages and five grandchildren.
