were presented in the last few years at Inter- 
national Symposiums on Remote Sensing of 
the Environment held at the Center. Proceed- 
ings of these symposiums are available 
through the Center, Post Office Box 618, Ann 
Arbor, Michigan 48107, USA. 
Because of the widespread interest and 
activity in the field of remote sensing, a 
Working Group on the subject was estab- 
lished within Commission I. Dr. Placidino M. 
Fagundes (Brazil) was named Chairman. The 
mission of this Working Group was to follow 
and report on a large-scale project in which 
remote sensors were being applied to evaluate 
the natural resources of Brazil. The project, 
known as the SERE project, involves the inter- 
national cooperation of the National Commis- 
sion for Space Activities (CNAE) of Brazil and 
the National Aeronautics and Space Adminis- 
tration (NASA) of the USA. The Chairman of 
the Working Group will report to the Con- 
gress on this project, which includes the 
acquisition and analysis of about 4,000,000 
square kilometers of radar imagery as well as 
significant amounts of color infrared and 
multispectral photography. 
Commission I has also invited Mr. William 
A. Fischer (USA), Program Manager of the 
U. S. Geological Survey's Earth Resources 
Observation Systems (EROS), to present to 
the Twelfth Congress a comprehensive review 
of the various sensors that are currently avail- 
able, their image-forming and image-record- 
ing characteristics, the variables affecting 
their performance, and the factors to be con- 
sidered in the selection of sensor systems. 
ACTIVITIES IN RESPONSE TO RESOLUTION 2 
The Commission decided that the effort 
required to develop standard methods and 
calibration procedures for Optical Transfer 
Functions was such that the separation of 
this activity from further studies of Modula- 
tion Transfer Functions was warranted. 
Accordingly, a separate Working Group on 
Modulation Transfer Functions (MTF), was 
established to concentrate attention on pho- 
tographic films and systems. Dr. Erik 
Welander (Sweden) was assigned the chair- 
manship. A major purpose of the Group was 
to continue the MTF activities of the former 
Working Group on Image Quality and report 
on developments that have occurred since 
1968. The activities in this area will be re- 
ported to the Congress by the Chairman of 
the Working Group. 
The Commission attempted to establish 
a Working Group to develop international 
standards for measuring Optical Transfer 
Functions (0TF). Experts who were asked to 
participate in this activity expressed the 
opinion that the pursuit of such an objective 
was premature. Their position was supported 
by the experiences at laboratories where 
meaningful correlations in OTF measurements 
of lenses had not been obtained. Some experts 
reported that they are applying an OTF tech- 
nique for the measurement of lenses as a 
production-control technique but doubt that 
their approach would meet the requirements 
of a standard. Others, noting the high cost 
and complexity of equipment and techniques, 
questioned the desirability of recommending 
a specific method for measuring the OTF of 
camera lenses. They agreed, however, that 
further study and investigation to develop 
OTF standards should be encouraged. 
Dr. Robert E. Hopkins (USA) will pre- 
sent an invited paper on this subject to the 
Congress. In his paper, “Standardization of 
the Optical Transfer Function,” Dr. Hopkins 
considers it appropriate to standardize defini- 
tions and to list acceptable OTF-measuring 
procedures. He suggests that it may be pos- 
sible to develop a standard which permits a 
wide variety of testing methods, and to 
reduce measurement data to a single figure of 
merit for expressing the image-forming qual- 
ities of an optical system. 
À questionnaire on the feasibility of estab- 
lishing a standard for OTF testing techniques 
was forwarded by the Commission to those 
experienced with OTF measurements. Mrs. 
Clarice Norton, Secretary of the Commission, 
will summarize the response to this canvass 
to the Congress. In addition, she has agreed 
to serve as moderator of a panel which will 
discuss the results of correlation testing. 
Because Mrs. Norton was a member of the 
Working Group on Image Quality of the 
previous Commission I, continuity is main- 
tained with the exceedingly valuable accom- 
plishments of that Working Group under the 
competent leadership of Mr. Gerald Brock 
(United Kingdom). Mr. Brock will also be a 
member of the OTF panel. 
ACTIVITIES IN RESPONSE TO RESOLUTION 3 
In January 1969 the Commission distrib- 
uted copies of Appendix 5 of the report by 
the previous Working Group on Image Qual- 
ity to more than 100 persons, agencies, and 
institutions throughout the world. Distribu- 
tion was limited to those who had previously 
received the original 1sp publication, ‘‘Recom- 
mended Procedures for Calibrating Photo- 
grammetric Cameras and for Related Optical 
Tests,” because it was recognized that the 
   
  
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