ADVANCES IN SPACE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
CONTENTS 1 WELCOME ADDRESS 2 ACTIVITIES OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION IN EARTH OBSERVATION: PART OF A COMMON EUROPEAN STRATEGY 3 THE CEO INITIATIVES TO COLLECT AND ANALYZE USER REQUIREMENTS FOR EARTH OBSERVATION 4 NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPING EARTH OBSERVATION APPLICATIONS IN FINLAND 5 OPERATIONALIZATION OF EARTH OBSERVATION: ITS PROSPECTS AND REQUIREMENTS 6 REMOTE SENSING OF FOREST FIRES 7 USING CURRENT AND FUTURE REMOTE SENSING SYSTEMS IN NATURAL HAZARDS MANAGEMENT 8 EXAMPLES OF THE USE OF SATELLITE DATA IN NUMERICAL WEATHER PREDICTION MODELS 9 THE CONTRIBUTION OF REMOTE SENSING TECHNOLOGIES AND ALGORITHMS TO LAND SURFACE PROCESSES STUDIES 10 EXPLOITATION AND EVALUATION OF RETRIEVAL ALGORITHMS FOR GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE DATA PROCESSING: CURRENT AND FUTURE SYSTEMS 11 THE ROLE OF REMOTE SENSING IN LAND SURFACE EXPERIMENTS WITHIN BAHC AND ISLSCP 12 EARTH OBSERVATION DEMANDS FOR IMPROVED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT 13 A BIOPHYSICAL PROCESS-BASED ESTIMATE OF GLOBAL LAND SURFACE EVAPORATION USING SATELLITE AND ANCILLARY DATA 14 REMOTE SENSING OF LAND COVER AND LAND COVER CHANGE 15 LAND-COVER CATEGORIES VERSUS BIOPHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES TO MONITOR LAND-COVER CHANGE BY REMOTE SENSING 16 A NEW APPROACH TO CHARACTERIZE GLOBAL LAND SURFACES: PRELIMINARY RESULTS FROM AVHRR DATA 17 REMOTE SENSING REQUIREMENTS TO SUPPORT FOREST INVENTORIES 18 SOME RESEARCH AND APPLICATIONS IN THE CSIRO (AUSTRALIA) EARTH OBSERVATION CENTRE ON SCENE BRIGHTNESS DUE TO BRDF 19 REMOTE SENSING OF ALBEDO USING THE BRDF IN RELATION TO LAND SURFACE PROPERTIES 20 EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF STATISTICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PLANT CANOPY RADIATION REGIME 21 LIGHT SCATTERING MODELS AND REFLECTANCE MEASUREMENTS IN REMOTE SENSING OF SNOW 22 RAY OPTICS APPROXIMATION FOR RANDOM CLUSTERS OF GAUSSIAN SPHERES 23 BACKSCATTERING OF LIGHT BY SNOW: FIELD MEASUREMENTS 24 AUSTRALIAN SITES FOR THE VALIDATION OF SATELLITE RETRIEVALS OF THE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES OF LAND SURFACES 25 INSTRUMENTS AND METHODS FOR THE GROUND-LEVEL REFERENCE MEASUREMENT OF SOLAR RADIATION, ALBEDO AND NET RADIATION 26 THE NASA EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE PROGRAM IN 21ST CENTURY 27 ESA'S PLANS AND STRATEGY FOR OPTICAL REMOTE SENSING OF TERRESTRIAL SURFACES IN THE NEXT DECADE 28 EARLY RESULTS FROM ADEOS AND FUTURE EARTH OBSERVATION MISSIONS 29 VEGETATION: AN EARTH OBSERVATION SYSTEM TO MONITOR THE BIOSPHERE 30 HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGER SURVEY AND DEVELOPMENTS FOR SCIENTIFIC AND OPERATIONAL LAND PROCESSES MONITORING APPLICATIONS 31 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS