Radio Science Bulletin 313 - June 2005 - URSI

satellite observation, bottomside sounding, GPS methodand also our subionospheric VLF/LF propagation.A special poster session on the precursoryelectromagnetic phenomena for the recent Japaneseearthquakes (Tokachi-oki, Kii peninsula, Mid NiigataPrefecture earthquakes etc.) has been organized, beingconsisting of 11 posters. Some new directions appeared; (1)the use of direction finding to locate the source, (2) a newapproach to detect anomalous geoelectrical areas bymonitoring the malfunction of radio telemetry network, (3)ELF Schumann resonances as a probe of earthquakes etc.These poster papers attracted a lot of attention of theparticipants and some mass media.The details of the workshop can be found in theAbstracts and in the website, http://www.iwse.ee.uec.ac.jp. You will be able to enjoy the friendly atmosphere of theworkshop and also the high-quality scientific paperspresented there.Two special issues are planned to collect the papersnot only presented in the IWSE, but also those which couldnot unfortunately be presented there. One is a special issuein IEEJ entitled “Recent Progress in SeismoElectromagnetics” (Guest Editor, M. Hayakawa), and willappear in April, 2006. Another will be a special issue inPhys. Chem. Earth (with the guest editors ; M. Hayakawa,O. A. Molchanov, S. Pulinets and M. Parrot) . You will beable to understand the recent progress in the field of seismoelectromagnetics.Masashi Hayakawahayakawa@whistlar.ee.uec.ac.jpURSI COMMISSION F SYMPOSIUM ON MICROWAVE REMOTESENSING OF THE EARTH, OCEANS, ICE, AND ATMOSPHEREBarza, d’Ispra, Italy, 20 - 21 April 2005IntroductionThe URSI 2005 Commission F Symposium wasorganized by the Sensors, Radar Technologies, andCybersecurity Unit, Institute for the Protection and Securityof the Citizen, Directorate General Joint Research Centre ofthe European Commission. The invitation to organize theSymposium came from the present Vice-Chair: of theCommission F - Wave Propagation and Remote Sensing,Prof. Martti Hallikainen (Helsinki University of Technology,Finland). The selected venue of the URSI-F 2005Symposium was Conference Centre Casa Don Guanella, inBarza d’Ispra (Varese, Italy). Barza d’Ispra is located closeto the Lake Maggiore (Northern Italy).The meeting was attended by a total of 62 scientists.Even if most participants were European, there were somecoming from non-EU Countries such as Russia, Turkey,USA, Japan, and Australia. The program included 40 oralpresentations and 8 posters, which were on display duringthe two days of the meeting.The motivation to organise the meeting was twofold:- to provide a premier forum for the scientific communityto discuss the latest results and to identify developingtrends in the field of wave propagation and remotesensing both with active and passive systems.- to deliver a number of keynote presentations by leadingresearchers, which are intended to review the current“state of the art” in the field of microwave remotesensing.Logistics IssuesOn the first day in the morning all participantscompleted the registration procedure and got a copy of thebooklet of abstracts and the symposium program. We thankMarta Garotta, Valeria Anfossi, and Gianluigi Ruzzante forfollowing this up. Since the location of the meeting was noteasily reachable by public transport, it was necessary toorganize a significant number of transfers to/from theairports and train station in Milan. Both Valeria Anfossi andMarta Garotta very professionally followed this up (thanksagain to them!).Summary of the SessionsAll sessions of the symposium were well attended andraised significant interest among the audience.The program was organized in 8 sessions, namely:1. SAR InterferometryThis session started with a keynote presentation by Prof.Claudio Prati (POLIMI, Italy) on the permanent scatterers(PS) technique. There were a total of four presentationsdealing with the issue of the monitoring of landslidesusing space-borne radar imagery. The rest of the sessioncovered various issues of interest within the SARinterferometry community, such as the use of multiplebaselines,multiple frequency bands, the retrieval ofbiophysical parameters, and the retrieval of digitalelevation models.TheRadio Science Bulletin No 313 (June, 2005) 77