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
and :
pres
of t|
has
Conf
quar
cati
vent
impr
An i
atte
spec
in t
as t
or s
peri
that
its
now,
by p
Part
has
the
the
type
tot
the
inde
viou
was
that
peri
cond
and
and
feet
or t
and
were
cons
avai
At t
Comm
that
Unti
Soci
gani
"cle
time
in t
acti