GLIMS Update: (1) Miniworkshop a success; (2) New Landsat 7 data product

[Jeffrey S Kargel]

Dear GLIMS Colleagues,

With the Holiday season upon us, I offer my warmest Holiday wishes for you,
and this GLIMS Update.

(1) GLIMS Miniworkshop, San Francisco, a big success THANKS TO  MANY OF
YOU!

Rather than continue with a past practice of holding a GLIMS Lunch at the
Fall AGU, which had proven somewhat awkward at last year's meeting with
about 20 people participating, this year GLIMS launched a half-day
Miniworkshop on 12 December the day before Fall AGU in San Francisco.  The
workshop included a formal agenda component in a small meeting room at the
Marriott Hotel and then continued afterwards with informal discussions over
beer and dinner.  Among the highlights were some excellent science
presentations by several GLIMS researchers and discussions which clearly
mandated a firm new direction that you will hear more about soon:
GLIMSView will encapsulate robust glacier image analysis tools and a
much-needed standardization protocol to ensure the reliability (high
accuracy, methodological tracking, and inherent repeatability of analysis).
GLIMSView will be a standard user-friendly (and free) interface that will
link images, analyst, and database.  A previous GLIMS Update submitted by
Deborah Soltesz just prior to the Miniworkshop (available on www.glims.org)
included a release of a new GLIMSView version.  The Miniworkshop
demonstrated a maturity of candidate analysis tools used by several GLIMS
researchers and identified a large suite of analysis capabilities that
Michael Bishop (UNO) has developed; he and Deborah Soltesz (USGS/Flagstaff)
will conduct the coding of these analytical tools into GLIMSView in time
for its next released version.   Due to the maturity of these tools, and
the fact that some tools are already written in the C++ language of
GLIMSView, we expect that a subsequent release of an updated GLIMSView will
take place rather soon.  Discussed at the post-miniworkshop beer session,
and now being discussed in Flagstaff, is the further integration of
GLIMSView with ISIS, a huge existing package of analytical and image
display tools (including a capability that allows the easy generation of
large seamless image mosaics and rendering in many projections) that was
written mainly in Flagstaff for the planetary imaging and spectroscopy
community.

The GLIMS Miniworkshop was open to GLIMS and non-GLIMS participation, and a
welcome growth of the project is taking place. The lines between GLIMS and
non-GLIMS are blurring, as other people recognize the utility of the GLIMS
consortium approach and the necessity of not making it some kind of
exclusive club, which we are not and never will be.   As the structure of
GLIMS inevitably blurs somewhat, and in light of a "round-robin" analysis
test conducted (and results reported) by Bruce Raup, the need for
standardization protocols is emphasized; thus, you will see adoption in
2005 of GLIMSView as a user-friendly standardized analysis kit, compiled
for several computer platforms.  We feel that this package will become a
standard for the entire glacier remote sensing community and even some
outside the glaciology field.   The next version of GLIMSView will not
replace other analysis tools, but as the analytical capability and
flexibility of analysis (coupled with tracking of specific methodologies)
coded into GLIMSView expands, we anticipate that there will be a widespread
adoption of this package as the most reliable, most repeatable, most
user-friendly way to tackle our complex analysis tasks.

Miniworkshop participants (apologies to 1 or 2 of you who may not be
listed, but you didn't sign the sheet that was circulated!):

Richard Armstrong, rlax at nsidc.org
Etienne Berthier, etienne.berthier at cnes.fr
Michael Bishop, bishop at data.unomaha.edu
Devon Burr, dmbrr at usgs.gov
Fiona Cawkwell, fiona.cawkwell at ualberta.ca
Luke Copland, luke.copland at canterbury.ac.nz
John Dwyer, dwyer at usgs.gov
Paul Geissler, pgeissler at usgs.gov
Gordon Hamilton, gordon.hamilton at maine.edu
Jeff Kargel, jkargel at usgs.gov
Jack Kohler
Bruce Molnia, bmolnia at usgs.gov
Bruce Raup, braup at nsidc.org
Jack Shroder, jshroder at mail.unomaha.edu
Leigh Stearns, LEIGH.STEARNS at MAINE.EDU
Deborah Soltesz, dsoltesz at usgs.gov
Arzhan Surazakov, sura7359 at uidaho.edu

Miniworkshop agenda (modified on site from that circulated prior to the
meeting), 1-5 PM, 12 Dec. 2004:

Introduction and Consortium Status Update: 10 minutes (Jeff Kargel)

NSIDC Update: 20 minutes (Bruce Raup with Richard Armstrong)
  Database and map server
  Results of round-robin test analysis
  Other NSIDC activities and progress

EDC Update (John Dwyer): 20 minutes

USGS demo of GLIMSView: 20 minutes (Deborah Soltesz)

Regional Center presentations and other focussed discussion topics, to be
identified, 50 minutes.
  Etienne Berthier (Alps/Iceland studies), 10 min.
  Fiona Cawkwell: Comparison of two Arctic ice caps: Manson and Agassiz (10
min.)
  Luke Copland, NZ-Feb06 GLIMS meeting, 5 min.
  Leigh Stearns: Feature tracking and DEM production in tough terrain (10
min.)
  Michael Bishop: Western Himalaya (15 min.)
  Arzhan Surazakov (5 min.): Tian Shan

Break and Informal discussions: 20 minutes
  Jeff Kargel (with Ella Lee): Glacier lake mapping (10 min.)
  Jeff Kargel: GLIMS publications (10 min.)

GLIMS community discussion/open forum  of Urgent Needs/Problems/Solutions
(Bruce Raup)

GLIMS happy  hour and dinner at pub/restaurant: Following GLIMS meeting
breakup.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(2) USGS Develops New Gap-filled Landsat Product

Kathleen K. Gohn  (U.S. Geological Survey, Public Affairs Specialist,
Office of
Communications) has reported that USGS (not the Flagstaff office) has
completed
development of a new product enhancement for Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic
Mapper Plus (ETM+) data captured after the Scan Line Corrector (SLC)
anomaly.  The new product will now allow the use of scenes from consecutive
passes to fill the gaps of the target scene.  The new product represents a
continuing effort by the USGS Landsat Project to increase the utility of
the Landsat 7 data affected by the scan line corrector malfunction. For
more information on the current Landsat 7 SLC-off product options, detailed
information on gap-filled processing, and to download sample products,
please visit the Landsat Project website:
http://landsat.usgs.gov/slc_off.html.  (Tracy Zeiler, Sioux Falls, SD,
605-594-2677)


--Jeff
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
 Energy conservation isn't just "green" and future-oriented, it's for
economic prosperity, national/global security, and global peace.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Dr. Jeffrey S. Kargel
U.S. Geological Survey
2255 N. Gemini Dr.
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
U.S.A.

Telephone (+1) (928) 556-7034
Fax (+1) (928) 556-7014
Email: jkargel at usgs.gov