Myrna James
Publisher and Managing Editor Apogeo Spatial
Dear Readers,
The year 2020 will be one to remember. The current global situation is complicated. While it’s extremely challenging for some, much good has come from it also.
This year is the 35th anniversary of Apogeo Spatial, and we are expanding our content and readership to include climate and space activists and enthusiasts who care about nature and biodiversity, while we will continue to cover uses of commercial remotely sensed data for projects that benefit the earth.
We are making some changes to the way we do business. First, we will finally be publishing articles ongoing online, rather than waiting until each new issue is released. This will provide fresher content, and allow us to be more timely with articles. We will still bring together groups of articles to create cohesive issues of the magazine as a pdf and in print. To add your email address to get monthly notifications, go to www.ApogeoSpatial.com/subscribe.
Second, we have hired the smart, talented and funny Melisa Harder (whom many of you know) as VP Marketing to create innovative sponsorship packages for you, so that you will get maximum impact from using Apogeo Spatial to deliver your marketing messages to our high-level audience of decision makers. She’ll be in touch, and if you don’t want to wait, just email melisa@apogeospatial.com.
In April, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of Earth Day by partnering with “Earth Matters,” a series of one-minute videos about why earth matters by Bill Kurtis and John St. Augustine (page 8). You can see the first few episodes on our website: https://apogeospatial.com/welcome-to-earth-matters/.
The 20th Anniversary of the International Space Station is also this year. In our series on the ISS, we feature on page 22 views of ocean plastic as seen from space, and two youth activists who are cleaning up plastic from our waters. In these pivotal changing times, solutions like cleaning plastics from the ocean and mapping The Great Barrier Reef may not seem important. However, the long-term problems in the world still exist, and so we are sharing good news about solving them. The Great Barrier Reef is being mapped for the first time (page 16), thanks to Christopher Roelfsema, whom I met in 2010 at IGARSS, which I attended with Dr. Ray Williamson, our editor. I also met long-time columnist Hans-Peter Plag there, whose column “On the Edge” is on page 12 about what’s needed for humanity at this time: resilience. This rings true on many levels. Dylan Taylor, founder/CEO of Voyager Space Holdings, shares wisdom about investing in space in “Spatial Capital” on page 10. I am grateful to all.
One year ago, I was in NYC celebrating the 50th Anniversary of NASA astronauts landing on the Moon at the NOVUS Summit with some amazing people at the United Nations HQ. The NOVUS Summit was a series of talks about people offering new Moonshots — audacious ideas to solve the UN-defined SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). The community has been open and optimistic about the future, led by Kunal Sood.
My most recent talk planned for April at Geospatial World Forum in Amsterdam was cancelled. After 17 years of working in the space and satellite industry, and speaking at and attending almost a hundred conferences (most of which are not recorded), I have a broad unique view of the innovation and technical advancements. I am able to ‘translate’ the tech and reasons why people should care about this innovation, so that these important ideas are understood by more people. In case you missed it, my interview with David Mitlyng about Quantum Key Distribution is here, both written and as a podcast. I have been told that this helped people to understand the basics of quantum mechanics.
Read: https://apogeospatial.com/quantum-key-distribution-in-space/.
Listen: https://apogeospatial.com/apogeo-spatial-podcast-with-david-mitlyng/.
As we continue to cover tech and the ethics of pushing that envelope, watch for more interviews in the magazine about 3D Printing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and the enabling technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), quantum, blockchain and lasers (LiDAR, lasercomm). It’s a very exciting time in our field! Contact me to be included in upcoming articles.
For the first time in publishing 75+ issues of this magazine, I’m including a personal essay (https://apogeospatial.com/dispatches-from-the-field/) about some pro bono work I’ve been doing with a very special nonprofit, Geoversity, located in Panama. We are taking their very solid 20-year foundation of learning from nature at their 12,500-acre Mamoni Valley Preserve, and of working with youth leaders from around the world, and founding the Geoversity School of Biocultural Leadership. This is such an absolutely critical time for the future of humanity, and we believe that evolving with nature is one of the most important elements needed. The new school is pulling together all of their expertise and curriculum under one blue sky roof, to attend to biodiversity and living systems, and to apply learning from biomimicry and immersion in the rainforest to businesses and leadership that is desperately needed to create a new future.
The venerable E.O. Wilson, (“The Father of Biodiversity,” long-time Harvard professor), believes that we need to set aside 50% of the landmass as nature preserves to stop the loss of biodiversity. While 50% is a lofty goal, his point is well taken by the team in Panama.
Here also is the link to our feature about Geoversity’s work and professional-level maps and data, “PanaMapping: GIS for Conservation Science,” thanks to their partnership with The University of Redlands:
https://apogeospatial.com/panamapping-gis-for-conservation-science/.
The articles about Geoversity demonstrate how Apogeo Spatial has evolved in 17 years. It has always been about data from space to study the earth, for the sake of humanity. We care about the earth because humanity needs a place to live. I have always been a humanitarian at heart. And now, we are noticing how the health of humans is directly related to and dependent upon their connection to the earth as a sacred living system.
Not only is nature healing emotionally and spiritually, but the actual resonance of the earth’s electromagnetic field can “recharge” our bodies into a more balanced state. The earth is gloriously and inherently tied to human health and vitality, and we find ourselves at this fascinating important nexus. We’re so grateful you’re along for the ride. Please share with your friends and colleagues who may want to join us.
Warmly,
Myrna
