Spatial Signals

Remote Sensing and Wildfire Management - The Squared Circle, Round Four

This is Round Four of our special “Squared Circle” episodes, where a group of guests gets together to wrestle with a particular topic. For this episode, we're joined by Dr. Sam Batzli from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Nancy French from the Michigan Tech Research Institute, and Dr. Aaron Maxwell from West Virginia University, and we’re discussing all things wildfire management with remote sensing and geospatial technologies. We talk about fire detection through remote sensing, the impact of emissions from fires, fuel mapping, post-fire analysis and potential impacts like debris-flow and landslides, fire danger assessment, Landfire, radar remote sensing for examining moisture conditions on the ground, terrestrial laser scanning before and after fire events, prescribed burns and fire behavior, NIFC (National Interagency Fire Center), measuring fuel moisture, FireSat, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

A Record Of What Has Been Lost with Elise Laugier

Elise Laugier from Utah State University joins us to talk about her background in archeology, landscape ecology, the CORONA Atlas project, viewing landscape changes through CORONA imagery, the Spatial Archaeometry Lab (SPARCL), UtahView, the archeological and environmental science projects of the LEGASYS Lab, the development of the USU certificate programs in remote sensing and geospatial AI, examining high resolution historical imagery, storytelling with imagery, flying UAS in northern Iraq, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

I Always Ride The Waves with Kashif Mahmud

Kashif Mahmud from Midwestern State University joins us to talk about his time as a lecturer in Civil Engineering, a journey that went from Bangladesh to Australia to America, Kashif’s work with TexasView, the El Paso Science Festival, the activities of the Landsat Advisory Group (the LAG), being an editor of the Journal of Earth Observations and Geospatial Applications, lidar analysis, surface and subsurface modeling, using lidar in caves, new algorithms for lidar analysis and feature extraction, advances in lidar technology, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

You Come To Learn, Engage, and Eat with Rodney Yantis and Courtney Poirier Chicola

Rodney Yantis and Courtney Poirier Chicola from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette return to talk about a disheartening lack of raptors, the origin of the GEOSERVICE workshop series, rising water and its effects in south Louisiana, NASA Aerokats, the various geospatial technologies activities for middle and high school students at the GEOSERVICE workshops, Earth Observation Day, generational learning, the role of undergraduate student mentors in the workshops, 26 years of Disaster Response workshops, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the 2025 Disaster Response activities and topics, the role of Geospatial First Responders, the International Charter Space and Major Disasters, how to register for the upcoming 2026 workshops, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com/. 

One Person's Noise Is Another Person's Signal with Barb Ryan

Barb Ryan, formerly of the USGS and the World Geospatial Industry Council, joins us to talk about Barb’s 0,0 point at a hill and a creek in Dalton, New York, a trip to Las Cruces that stopped in Denver, joining the USGS at the water division, mass measurement of ground water wells, traveling to Antarctica, how Barb had a mountain in Antarctica named after her, Barb’s work as the Director of the Space Programme of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), coordinating satellite observations of weather information, the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC), a system of systems, how the Landsat archive became free and open data, the economic return and benefits of the satellite industry, the interconnectedness of the Earth system, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

You Keep Watching The Skies For The Next Year with Chris McGinty

Chris McGinty from Utah State University joins us a guest instead of a host for this special one-year anniversary episode to talk about building 3D models of terrain from tinfoil, winning a Geography bee, a choice of a business degree in college, Chris’ time as a coal miner, the day the dean recommended a GIS class, Utah Geographic Information Council (UGIC), the birth of UtahView, Chris’ time as AmericaView’s Program Manager and his path to becoming the Executive Director of AmericaView, communicating science and education on Capitol Hill, the importance of Earth Observation data, the future of AmericaView, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Open Data Is The Future with Nicole Kong

Nicole Kong from Purdue University joins us to talk about choosing environmental science as a major, remote sensing of giant panda habitats, a slightly different choice to work outside of academia in the transportation field, a GIS Day event with Larry Biehl, developments and opportunities in IndianaView, Nicole’s role as Associate Dean, the growth of geospatial information science at Purdue, GIS and remote sensing in business and public health, the importance of open source tools and open data, MultiSpec, multidisciplinary collaboration in research, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

I Was Definitely Born To Do GIS and Remote Sensing with Kass Green

Kass Green of Kass Green and Associates joins us to talk about natural resource economics, Kass’ founding of Pacific Meridian Resources and how the company expanded, mapping old growth forest in the Pacific Northwest, SpaceImaging, lobbying for the Landsat Act, mapping change with high-resolution imagery, getting maps and information into the hands of decision makers in an intuitive form, using AI in imagery classification, lidar in mapping projects, Kass’ involvement in local politics in Sausalito, analysis of the impact of sea level rise on Sausalito, making decisions with data, Pacific Veg Map, Kass’ collaboration with Russ Congalton, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com