Message from the Conference Chairman
I am pleased to welcome you to the 8th EUSAR conference in the wonderful city of Aachen!
Over the years the European Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar has evolved to become surely the most important international conference dedicated to SAR techniques, technology and applications. It has accompanied the worldwide evolution of high resolution imaging radar, both airborne and spaceborne, and has helped to establish an international community of SAR engineers and scientists. The great success of previous EUSAR conferences (since 1996), together with the overwhelming international response to EUSAR 2010, confirms this.
As in previous years, EUSAR provides an excellent forum for exchanging information and discussion on a wide variety of SAR topics, representing the latest SAR developments and future trends. EUSAR 2010 will be an unique conference for all colleagues involved in the field of synthetic aperture radar.
Over the years, dramatic improvements have been made in the field of radar technology and applications. SAR has become an individual discipline within the field of radar, finding many applications in civilian areas. Spacebased SAR has turned into an outstanding and important tool for earth observation and reconnaissance.
Currently we are now in a very dynamic and challenging time for SAR development with the approaching launch of TANDEM-X and a number of established spaceborne systems like RADARSAT-2, COSMO Skymed, TECSAR, ALOS/PALSAR, TerraSAR-X, SAR-Lupe, and several others. Today's SAR systems are an indispensable data source for high resolution 2D and 3D mapping, environmental and disaster monitoring as well as security related applications. Information extraction has achieved a mature and operational level in a number of different fields, making the contributions of SAR systems to present and future programmes like GMES and GEOSS very essential.
With more than 360 SAR experts, representing about 33 countries from all over the world, coming together at such a conference, we can once again expect to achieve excellent results.
In order to provide an outstanding technical level for the presentations at the conference, we have invited more than 80 distinguished experts in the SAR field to participate in the Technical Programme Committee. We will have 40 sessions during 3 days of conference, including 13 invited sessions, full-day tutorials on topical themes on the first day of the conference, an industrial exhibition showcasing the latest technological developments in this field as well as the Awards presentation during the closing session at the last day of the conference. A special event programme will be organised following in the tradition of previous EUSAR conferences.
The conference site is the Eurogress Aachen, one of the finest congress centres in Germany. It is situated near the centre of the city in a beautiful parkway (Kurgarten and Stadtgarten). A 15 minutes walk takes you directly into the heart of the historical city amongst all popular sights and points of interests. Take your time to visit the city of Aachen, and especially the Cathedral, which was erected on the order of Charlemagne in 786 AD and was, upon completion, the largest dome north of the Alps.
I am looking forward to meeting you in Aachen during EUSAR 2010 and to sharing a most pleasant, interesting and fruitful conference.
Joachim Ender
- General Chairman -
Fraunhofer-FHR, Germany
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Message from the Program Chairman
On behalf of the program board I would like to welcome you to the EUSAR 2010 conference!
The overwhelming response to our call-for-papers indicates the popularity of this conference and confirms that EUSAR has become the world-wide forum for all aspects of science and technology in the field of SAR related topics. The enthusiasm has certainly increased due to the successful launches of the latest SAR Missions and the excellent status of future programs. For EUSAR 2010, we have received more than 360 draft papers from 33 countries all over the world. After the review process, 250 papers were selected for oral presentation and more than 100 papers will be displayed for interactive poster presentations. Thanks to this response, all important fields of SAR techniques, technology and exploitation are covered by the contributions. To our pleasure several invited sessions has been organised and there will be a special session on “Comparison of SAR, SAS, Sonography”, which opens the mind of the researchers beyond one’s own field by looking into complementary fields.
Prior to EUSAR 2010 there is a tutorial day consisting of three parallel courses. The conference itself starts with the plenary session on Tuesday, where keynote speeches will be given by distinguished experts. Throughout the remaining three conference days the four parallel oral sessions will be held in separate halls. We have arranged the parallel sessions such that overlap of related research areas is kept to a minimum. On the first day of the conference the evening will be closed by the traditional piano recital in the Eurogress centre, followed by a reception in the Krönungssaal (town hall of Aachen). Posters will be displayed throughout the three conference days. Special attention should be given to the interactive poster presentation on Wednesday evening.
A Best Paper Award, a Best Poster Award and three Student Best Paper Awards will be awarded at the closing session on the last day of the conference. Finally, I would like to invite you to join the technical tour to Jülich Research Centre (Forschungszentrum Jülich) on Friday, which provides you with a close-up view of world-class research in the areas of health, information, environment, and energy.
All papers received by the deadline will be included in the EUSAR conference proceedings and on the conference compact disk.
I would like to express my thanks to all authors for their outstanding contributions and in particular the members of the program board for their competent evaluation of the large number of submissions. Likewise I would also like to express my appreciation to the program and awards committee, as well as to the invited chairs for their careful preparation of the invited sessions.
I am looking forward to seeing you in Aachen.
Matthias Weiß
Fraunhofer FHR, Germany