Shows
Spatial SignalsYour Backyard Is More Than You Think It Is with Pablo ViramontesPablo Viramontes from the New Mexico Department of Agriculture joins us to talk about his time as an ROTC cadet, GIS in the intelligence field, an internship with the Bureau of Land Management in New Mexico, gathering data at the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, geospatial work with the TRIO Upward Bound program, K-12 geography education, visiting the White House, the National Space Council, the El Paso Science Festival, the Valencia Soil and Water Conservation District, agriculture applications, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-12-2233 minSpatial SignalsDon't Go Driving A Ship Around Lake Champlain with Paige BrochuPaige Brochu from University of Vermont joins us to talk about the influence of Jurassic Park, archeology in the Caribbean, mapping Lake Champlain shipwrecks, Benedict Arnold’s gunboat, the Spatial Analysis Lab (SAL) at UVM, interning with the Nature Conservancy in Rhode Island, a spatial connection via Strava that ended up in a Postdoc position, planetary health, meeting with policy makers on Capitol Hill, VermontView and Jarlath O’Neill-Dunne, drone imagery and the resources of the SAL used for disaster response in Vermont, GIS and remote sensing for addressing public health issues, spatial analysis related to drinking water, analysis of g...
2025-12-1540 minSpatial SignalsMaking Datasets More Accessible with Tyler EricksonTyler Erickson from VorGeo joins us to talk about foldable paper maps, working with remotely sensed data at a technology non-profit, the founding of MichiganView, open Landsat data, Google Earth Engine, Tyler’s time working at Google on the Earth Engine project, the founding of VorGeo and the work being done there, CTrees and above-ground biomass measurement, OpenET and water data, SAR data, SatCamp, advanced machine learning techniques, foundation models and embeddings, geospatial applications of large language modules, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-12-0836 minSpatial SignalsThe Way People Work And Can Live With Fire with Nancy FrenchNancy French from the Michigan Tech Research Institute at Michigan Technological University joins us to talk about the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM), SAR applications, field data in conjunction with radar remote sensing to analyze fire effects, the Bettles fire in Alaska, MichiganView, wildfires and remote sensing, wildfire smoke and health, estimating fuel consumption, fuel moisture monitoring, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-12-0135 minSpatial SignalsThe Emotional Hook of Remote Sensing with JB SharmaJB Sharma from the University of North Georgia joins us to talk about JB’s transition from a physics background to geospatial technologies, grassroots STEM literacy, how to get students interested in remote sensing, JB’s work with AmericaView, AI-based techniques for handling the volume of remote sensing data, deep learning, GEOBIA for classifying UAS data, learning communities in online learning, ASPRS, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-11-2435 minSpatial SignalsI Was There From the Cretaceous to the Holocene with Joseph KerskiJoseph Kerski from Joseph Kerski LLC, University of Denver and Auburn University joins us to talk about growing up in a motel in western Colorado, making maps as a kid that included address ranges, working at USGS, being part of the Esri Education team, Joseph’s passion for teaching geography, spatial thinking concepts, multidisciplinary teaching, mathematics and spatial thinking, teaching with geospatial and developing a general public course, new education projects, and much, much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-11-1741 minSpatial SignalsA Fisheries Degree But It Really Turned Into a Remote Sensing Degree with Lisa WirthLisa Wirth, the Program Director of AmericaView, joins us to talk about Lisa's graduate work in Fisheries in Alaska, tagging fall chum salmon on the Yukon River, having field instruments freeze up, tracking fish with radiotelemetry, thermal remote sensing of rivers, using SAR imagery in Alaska, using a FLIR camera on a Cessna, the Alaska Geobotanical Center, AlaskaView, Augmented Reality sandboxes, managing all of the StateViews of AmericaView, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-11-1031 min
Spatial SignalsDrones and the NDAA - The Squared Circle, Round TwoThis is Round Two 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. Donna Delparte from the University of Idaho, Dr. Bruce Millett from South Dakota State University, and Dr. Lance Yarbrough from the University of Mississippi, and we're discussing all things drones. We talk about the state of the union of drones today, the impact of the National Defense Authorization Act (the NDAA) and the American Security Drone Act on drones, sensors, and data collection, the Blue List and the Green List...
2025-11-0349 minSpatial SignalsThe Third Dimension In Remote Sensing with the NASA AREN TeamGeoff Bland, Andy Henry, Lisa Ogiemwonyi, and Sallie Smith from the NASA AREN (Aerokats and Rover Education Network) team join us to talk about the beginnings of the AREN project, Aerokats and remote sensing via kites, flying the first educational UAS with sensors on the Channel Islands of California, RSESTeP, ICARUS, incorporating remote sensing into K-12 classrooms, place-based education, the development of Aeropods, the various camera systems and sensors that can be used on Aeropods, high resolution imagery from kites, looking at change over time in imagery, collecting air quality data, teacher training in the AREN workshops, local community...
2025-10-2743 minSpatial SignalsHitting A Button And Reading Harry Potter with Robbyn AbbittRobbyn 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 classroom, digital twins, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-10-2037 minSpatial SignalsEvery Day Is Earth Observation Day with Rebecca Dodge and Tom MuellerHappy 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 happening around the country with it. We also touch on current EOD activities such as the NASA Aerokats, Mapathons, Landsat imagery, data collection with your phone, and much more. Show notes and photos...
2025-10-1337 minSpatial SignalsA Locked Door Made All The Difference In The World with Forrest BowlickForrest 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 incorporating new developments, teaching projections in a GIS course, a Roger Tomlinson documentary, the Impossible Map from 1947, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-10-0638 minSpatial SignalsStuck In The Ice On An Icebreaker with Joe OrtizJoe 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 techniques, the benefits of open-source software for remote sensing and analysis, and multispectral UAS imagery analysis. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-09-2933 minSpatial SignalsMetadata Was The Center of My Existence with Greg BonyngeGreg 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, GIS data archiving, ArcGIS Indoors, indoor scanning with lidar for creating 3D building models, and hurricane response and modeling potential flood and wind impacts. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.co...
2025-09-2227 minSpatial SignalsOne Software Changed My Life with Carter WangCarter 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 notes are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-09-1535 minSpatial SignalsThe Bad News Bears Wildfire Fighting Team with Scott PowellScott 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 acquisition, CART decision trees, MontanaView, and much more. Show notes are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-09-0838 minSpatial SignalsIt Took A Hi-Ranger To Carry The Instrument Around with Larry BiehlLarry 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 importance of data calibration. Show notes are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-09-0142 minSpatial SignalsDon't Live In The Ivory Tower with Tom MuellerTom 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, the Cohasset Center for Coastal Student Research and much more. Show notes are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-08-2531 minSpatial SignalsIt's Like Learning a Bad Golf Swing with Lance YarbroughLance 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 more. Show notes are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-08-1830 minSpatial SignalsI Ate Up Everything I Had Thrown At Me In The Geology World with Kyle FredrickKyle 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 waste piles. Show notes are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-08-1134 min
Spatial SignalsLandsat Next - The Squared Circle, Round OneThis 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 everyone is most looking forward to with the upcoming launch of Landsat Next, how its new and improved capabilities over the previous Landsat satellites will impact data collec...
2025-08-0443 minSpatial SignalsThe Course Catalog Was The Yellow Pages with Dana PetersonDana 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 invasive species analysis. Show notes are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-07-2831 minSpatial SignalsWe Had Some Sensors Eaten By Cows with Kevin CzajkowskiKevin 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 fieldwork, having sensors eaten by cows, GLOBE Mission Earth, Kevin’s work philosophy, the early days of OhioView, air quality satellites and analysis, and much more. Show not...
2025-07-2141 minSpatial SignalsI Grew Up With All The Things with Amy LoganAmy 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 Award, involving art teachers with remote sensing imagery, and lesson plans for K-12 teachers. Show notes are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-07-1438 minSpatial SignalsA Different SD Than What I Was Expecting with Bruce MillettBruce 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 sensing analysis for surface water change. Show notes are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-07-0741 minSpatial SignalsThe First Digital Global Map with Bobbi LenczowskiBobbi 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 of AmericaView, her service with ASPRS, as well as her involvement with multiple geospatial initiatives in the St. Louis area, including NGA, GeoFutures, and drone training for high school students. Show notes are available at: http...
2025-06-3045 minSpatial SignalsCollecting Leaf-Level Data with Donna DelparteDonna 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, workshops at the Craters of the Moon, and monitoring golden eagle nesting activity. Show notes are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-06-2330 minSpatial SignalsCreating Maps One Line At a Time with Tracy DeLibertyTracy DeLiberty from the University of Delaware joins us to talk about remote sensing of deserts and arid lands, the good old days of X-terms and command-line GIS, teaching high school students with remotely sensed imagery, analyzing irrigation across Delaware, studying sea ice thickness at the north and south poles and much more. Show notes are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-06-1628 minSpatial SignalsThey Found All The Dinosaurs Already with Courtney Poirier ChicolaCourtney Poirier Chicola from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette joins us for a discussion that begins with Jurassic Park, 4-H, and her dashed dreams of being a paleontologist, and then delves into Earth As Art, teaching through art, Pecora 2022, the Rising Waters workshop, NASA Aerokats, teaching Python and GeoAI in ArcGIS, and the evolution of image classification methods and accuracy issues. Show notes are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-06-0935 minSpatial SignalsThe PI Is Not a Private Investigator with Robin McNeelyRobin McNeely from Iowa State University joins us for a discussion that begins with a blast from the past about AutoCAD, PC Arc/Info, UNIX, Sun Stations, and digitizing tables, and then delves into building a land cover dataset for Iowa, landscape ecology, Robin’s family connection with the Army Corps of Engineers, nutrient management, analyzing agriculture impacts with imagery, and teacher training workshops. Show notes are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-06-0233 minSpatial SignalsWe Need An Earth Observation Day with Rebecca DodgeRebecca Dodge from Midwestern State University joins us for a discussion about geology, ERTS (later known as Landsat 1), photographs from Skylab, working in the oil industry, Rebecca's extensive work with AmericaView including her time as its Executive Director, Texas As Art, remote sensing at the El Paso Science Festival, and the development of Earth Observation Day. Show notes are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-05-2631 minSpatial SignalsGeospatial First Responders with Rodney YantisRodney Yantis from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette joins us to talk about majoring in landscape ecology, Earth As Art, the International Charter Space and Major Disasters, geospatial first responders, the role of remote sensing in hurricane preparedness and monitoring, support for the Louisiana Army National Guard programs, the Rising Water workshop program, and planning for colonies on the moon. Show notes are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-05-1929 minSpatial SignalsAn Open Source Human Being with Lindi QuackenbushLindi Quackenbush from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry joins us for a an academic adventure that begins in Melbourne, Australia, continues on to Maine, and then ends up in New York. We also talk about AML, land surveying, feature extraction, the power and importance of a national network of scholars and researchers like AmericaView, Lindi’s time as a director of the AmericaView board as well as her academic leadership and research at SUNY ESF. Show notes are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-05-1226 minSpatial SignalsPush a Button and Map All the Sagebrush in Utah with Doug RamseyDoug Ramsey from Utah State University joins us to talk about rangeland ecology, field work and understanding the dynamics on the ground when doing remote sensing, the Southwest Gap Analysis project, and extracting land cover maps from Landsat imagery. Show notes are available are: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-05-0528 minSpatial SignalsWhere the Ocean Is On The Correct Side of the Planet with Russ CongaltonRuss Congalton from the University of New Hampshire joins us to talk about wanting to go into space, taking Organic Chemistry just for fun, teaching at Berkeley, working with the GLOBE program, remote sensing accuracy assessment, studying cyanobacteria in New Hampshire lakes and ponds, being the recipient of the William T. Pecora award, and much more. Show notes are available are: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-04-2832 minSpatial SignalsA Smartphone With Wings and a Propeller with John McGeeJohn McGee from Virginia Tech University joins us for a discussion that starts off at a river with crocodiles and a solar powered GIS lab in Zambia, then continues on to finding drones in the grocery store then again at a gas station, UAS analysis today, precision agriculture and geospatial technology, the Landsat program, and the impact of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on drones and education today. Show notes are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-04-2131 minSpatial SignalsAI As A Research Assistant with Aaron MaxwellAaron Maxwell from West Virginia University joins us to talk about mining reclamation, large scale land cover changes, open source spatial analytics, data wrangling, learning programming, the benefits of ChatGPT for coding and troubleshooting, AI being a helpful research assistant, and a whole lot more. Show notes for this episode are available at: https://americaview.substack.com
2025-04-1432 minSpatial SignalsThe Secret Origin of AmericaViewThis first episode of Spatial Signals looks at the origin of the AmericaView consortium - how the OhioView consortium started in the state of Ohio and then evolved into the national AmericaView program. Our guests for this origin story are Kevin Czajkowski from OhioView and Mary O'Neill from SouthDakotaView. Show notes for this first episode are available at: https://americaview.substack.com/.
2025-04-0742 min
Eyes on EarthEyes on Earth Episode 91 – Intro to AmericaViewAmericaView aims to advance Earth observation education through a network of programs based at universities in more than 40 states. In this episode of Eyes on Earth, we talk about AmericaView’s goals and how AmericaView and its member states explain remote sensing efforts to society in a variety of ways, including outreach to students who range from elementary to graduate school. We also give examples of the organization’s remote sensing research and describe AmericaView’s ties with the USGS and with Landsat.
2023-03-0719 min
A VerySpatial Podcast | Discussions on Geography and Geospatial TechnologiesA VerySpatial Podcast - Episode 224Main topic: Our conversation on some of the debates over GIS and its future. News: NASA, AmericaView, and Chinese.
2009-11-0240 minA VerySpatial Podcast | Discussions on Geography and Geospatial TechnologiesA VerySpatial Podcast - Episode 224Main topic: Our conversation on some of the debates over GIS and its future. News: NASA, AmericaView, and Chinese.
2009-11-0240 minA VerySpatial Podcast | Discussions on Geography and Geospatial TechnologiesA VerySpatial Podcast - Episode 29Main Topic: Interview with John O'Loughlin. News: AmericaView Internships, Mapion, Intergraph SGI change of guard
2006-02-0544 minA VerySpatial Podcast | Discussions on Geography and Geospatial TechnologiesA VerySpatial Podcast - Episode 29Main Topic: Interview with John O'Loughlin. News: AmericaView Internships, Mapion, Intergraph SGI change of guard
2006-02-0544 min