Spatial Signals

Robbyn Abbitt from Miami University joins us to talk about working at an underground storage tank unit in Indiana, planning to work outside in Idaho but being assigned to an indoor GIS lab, the concept of lumping and splitting, getting hired as the GIS Coordinator for Miami University, the Ohio GIS Conference, Robbyn’s work with the original Gap Analysis Program and NHD, the Blue Line Program, the OGRIP Council, using drones in the...

Happy Earth Observation Day, everyone!  Our guests for this special Earth Science Week episode are Rebecca Dodge of Midwestern State University and Tom Mueller from the Massachusetts Bureau of Geographic Information (MassGIS), the founding parents of Earth Observation Day which is celebrated this week.  We delve into how Earth Observation Day came about, how it's grown, materials that have been developed over the years, and what’s ...

Forrest Bowlick from University of Massachusetts-Amherst joins us to talk about finding Svalbard on a globe at two years old, National Geographic Bees, a life-changing locked door, the McNair Scholars Program, taking Introduction to GIS three different times, the scholarship of teaching and learning, Forrest giving a TED talk on GIS, the development of MassachusettsView, the Geographer’s Craft, strategies for teaching GIS and incor...

Joe Ortiz from Kent State University joins us to talk about using micro-fossils to learn about how climate changes over time, the Beaver-SCAT instrumentation, spending two months at sea in the North Atlantic, remote sensing and collecting sediment cores at sea, research at the Bering Strait, spending 3 days stuck in the ice, strategies for avoiding polar bears, identifying algae from space, harmful algal blooms, machine learning te...

Greg Bonynge from the University of Rhode Island joins us to talk about working on a Alpaca farm in Pennsylvania, an internship with the USDA forest service, modeling the spread of the southern pine beetle, spatial statistics, working at a neuroscience lab, being a beta-tester for ModelBuilder, land cover change in Tanzania, SSEER (Scientific Support for Environmental Emergency Response), ingesting GIS data and documenting metadata...

Carter Wang from Towson University joins us to talk about his introduction to Google Earth in high school in China, urban heat islands in Arizona, MarylandView, the AmericaView Journal of Earth Observation and Geospatial Applications, the annual Geospatial Technology Summer Camp at Towson University, urban forestry analysis, land cover change related to tree loss, NAIP imagery, and the AAG remote sensing specialty group.  Show note...

Scott Powell from Montana State University joins us to talk about Scott’s work at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas, mapping cave openings in the Carlsbad Caverns area, Scott’s time as a firefighter fighting wildfires, Landsat imagery time series printouts, the Oregon Cascades. geologic carbon sequestration, using aerial hyperspectral sensors for detecting leaking carbon emissions, drone applications and imagery acquis...

Larry Biehl from Purdue University joins us to talk about a prophetic high school paper about computer applications in farming, the Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing (LARS), Skylab, the development of MultiSpec, the vision to keep MultiSpec free and available, the Terrestrial Observatory, the birth of IndianaView, Useful 2 Usable, remote sensing agricultural applications, spectrometers and radiometers, and the importanc...

Tom Mueller from the Massachusetts Bureau of Geographic Information (MassGIS) joins us to talk about Pchem ending Tom’s time as a Chemistry major, building an atlas of nursing homes, the importance of service learning for students, the GeoTech Center, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap, Mapathons, mapping and analysis of water samples and contamination, MassGIS, the Massachusetts Spatial Data Infrastructure, the birth of MassachusettsView,...

Lance Yarbrough from the University of Mississippi joins us to talk about an encounter with a Floyd Sabins textbook at a university book sale at a young age, examining geology through stereopairs, the Year of the Satellite, remote sensing application in North Dakota. lidar data analysis, 3D models and Structure from Motion, GeoAI tools, the appeal of retro analog maps and tools, giving expert witness testimony in court, and much mo...

Kyle Fredrick from PennWest University - California joins us to talk about teaching a middle-school class in college, groundwater modeling, user-friendly vs. user-surly software, his fantastic geologic mapping summer field class that he teaches each year, remote sensing of Utah landscapes, the growth of the sand spit and new habitats at Presque Isle in Erie, and the potential for critical and rare-earth mineral extraction from coal...

This is Round One 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. Aaron Maxwell from West Virginia University, Dr. Bruce Millett from South Dakota State University, Dr. Dana Peterson from the University of Kansas, and Dr. Doug Ramsey from Utah State University, and we’re discussing all things Landsat Next. We talk about what ev...

Dana Peterson from the University of Kansas joins us to talk about the Yellow Pages of class descriptions, the Kansas Biological Survey, archiving Landsat imagery from 9-Track Tapes, spectroradiometers, watersheds and green-up, field work on the Rio Grande, the Sentinel GreenReport that leverages Sentinel-2 imagery for vegetation monitoring over time, eastern red cedar woody encroachment, and mapping and collecting data for invasiv...

Kevin Czajkowski from the University of Toledo joins us to talk about snow days, a heat wave summer, an internship with the National Weather Service, space plasma physics, the revelation of getting paid to go to graduate school, the ups and downs of academic job applications, the perils of looking like a geographer, receiving the NASA New Investigator grant, soil moisture sampling and the SMAP project, taking your son with you for ...

Amy Logan from Iowa State University joins us to talk about her borrowing a car in her college days in order to intern at the Northeast Iowa Resource and Conservation Development office, a big orange GPS backpack for mapping, community and regional planning, using ArcPad for tree mapping, OpenStreetMap, Iowa As Art, analyzing patterns in nature, Amy being the recipient of the NCGE’s 2024 Outstanding Support for Geography Education ...

Bruce Millett from South Dakota State University joins us to talk about Bruce’s service in the US Navy as a weather observer and remote sensing, working on a SMQ-10 for satellite tracking, DIME files, Selective Availability and GPS accuracy, moving from the coast to South Dakota, wetlands simulation modeling, the impact and collaboration of the AmericaView network, workforce development, precision agriculture with UAS, and remote s...

Bobbi Lenczowski, formerly of the National Geospatial-lntelligence Agency (NGA), joins us for a discussion of the highlights of her all-star career with her time at the Defense Mapping Agency, gathering early map data and the progression of geospatial technology, data classification and data management techniques, development of the first digital global digital map made from scanning paper maps, Bobbi’s time as Executive Director o...

Donna Delparte from Idaho State University joins us to talk about the circuitous route that took her from Regina, Canada through many different locales to finally end up in Pocatello, Idaho.  We also talk about hazard mapping for back country skiing, underwater GIS and remote sensing, using drones for precision agriculture for detecting Potato virus Y, using drone-based lidar for mapping slope susceptibility related to landslides, ...