fessional associates who were committed to earning a living in 
the same field of endeavor as that in which we ourselves were 
engaged. Much can be said for having such a rejuvenating experience 
once a year. However, we must differentiate the enthusiasm of 
professional colleagues from that of the rest of the scientific 
community, without whose support most of the concepts discussed 
in this paper might never have progressed much beyond the "warm 
glow" stage. What evidence is there then that modern remote 
sensing technology, in general, and photo interpretation, in 
particular, has recently won this acceptance by other scientists? 
Certainly some evidence for this claim resides in the fact that, 
during the past quarter century scientific and professional 
Societies representing a tremendous variety of disciplines have 
displayed great interest for the first time in various aspects 
of remote sensing. The technical sessions held at their annual 
meetings have reflected this interest by highlighting papers, and 
even whole symposia on one aspect or another of remote sensing. 
Usually the emphasis, especially in the last few years, has been 
on recent developments in the acquisition and analysis of multi- 
band imagery and/or digital data indicative of scene brightness. 
Among the professional societies in the United States that fre- 
quently have held such technical sessions and continue to do so 
are the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the 
American Astronautical Society, the American Institute of Biolo- 
gical Sciences, the National Geographic Society, the Optical 
Society of America, the Society of American Foresters, the Range 
Management Society of America, the Ecological Society of America 
and at least three groups within the National Research Council 
(Division of Biology and Agriculture, Earth Sciences Division, 
and Agricultural Research Institute). 
As a corollary, it has been during this same period that articles 
dealing with remote sensing have for the first time been featured 
in the professional journals of most of these societies and also 
in some of the more popular magazines, such as Time, Newsweek, 
Scientific American, Popular Mechanics, and National Geographic 
Magazine. As further evidence, the highly prestigious professional 
journal of the American Society of Photogrammetry, which for years 
had been known simply as "Photogrammetric Engineering" began fea- 
turing so many articles on photo interpretation that its name was 
changed, during this same period, to "Photogrammetric Engineering 
and Remote Sensing." 
  
  
What has just been said regarding the increased interest in remote 
sensing by scientists in the United States appears to be true in 
several other countries as well, especially in Western Europe and 
Australia. 
Evidence leading to this conclusions is provided by the steadily 
increasing number of international symposia on various aspects 
of photo interpretation and remote sensing that are being held at 
several places throughout the world. To take one example which 
geographically speaking is near at hand, it was in 1966 that 
scientists from a great variety of disciplines combined their 
efforts and produced a World Congress in Cologne, Germany, on 
uses of photography and other forms of remote sensing in industry 
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
   
     
   
     
   
  
  
    
   
    
    
    
   
  
  
  
  
  
     
  
  
    
  
   
  
  
  
    
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