Spatial Signals

Anita Simic-Milas from Bowling Green State University joins us to talk about her encounter with GIS and Unix in her very last course as an undergraduate student, GRASS GIS software, developing net primary productivity maps, Anita’s time working at the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS), groundwater modeling with remote sensing, the development of SPLIT, the SPLIT summer programs and field data collection, OhioView, students learning from their peers, remote sensing connecting science and art, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Sarah Slack from Intermediate School (IS) 223 in Brooklyn, NY joins us to talk about termite flatulence, joining the New York City Teaching Fellows program, teaching science, changes to Earth’s climate, Sarah’s traveling to Antarctica with PolarTREC, being on an icebreaker at the onset of the Covid pandemic, GIS class on a boat while going through Drake Passage, Sarah’s experience as an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow, examining urban heat island effects, the Landsat Explorer app, the Climate Education Leadership Team, building pathways for students to enter the earth sciences as a career path, student engagement with collecting temperature and analyzing urban heat data, science as a way of thinking rather than just facts, applications of online remote sensing and GIS apps in the classroom, the Geospatial Semester at JMU, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Caiyun Zhang from Florida Atlantic University joins us to talk about a competitive college test, being randomly placed into the Ocean University of China to study Geology, being introduced to GIS and aerial photography in graduate school, hyperspectral lidar, Caiyun’s love of all things Florida, the birth of FloridaView, Alaskan permafrost assessment and studies, wetland mapping in the Everglades, working with the National Park Service at Canaveral National Seashore for assessing damage from hurricanes, community mapping for flood estimation, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

This is Round Four 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. Sam Batzli from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Nancy French from the Michigan Tech Research Institute, and Dr. Aaron Maxwell from West Virginia University, and we’re discussing all things wildfire management with remote sensing and geospatial technologies. We talk about fire detection through remote sensing, the impact of emissions from fires, fuel mapping, post-fire analysis and potential impacts like debris-flow and landslides, fire danger assessment, Landfire, radar remote sensing for examining moisture conditions on the ground, terrestrial laser scanning before and after fire events, prescribed burns and fire behavior, NIFC (National Interagency Fire Center), measuring fuel moisture, FireSat, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Kashif Mahmud from Midwestern State University joins us to talk about his time as a lecturer in Civil Engineering, a journey that went from Bangladesh to Australia to America, Kashif’s work with TexasView, the El Paso Science Festival, the activities of the Landsat Advisory Group (the LAG), being an editor of the Journal of Earth Observations and Geospatial Applications, lidar analysis, surface and subsurface modeling, using lidar in caves, new algorithms for lidar analysis and feature extraction, advances in lidar technology, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Barb Ryan, formerly of the USGS and the World Geospatial Industry Council, joins us to talk about Barb’s 0,0 point at a hill and a creek in Dalton, New York, a trip to Las Cruces that stopped in Denver, joining the USGS at the water division, mass measurement of ground water wells, traveling to Antarctica, how Barb had a mountain in Antarctica named after her, Barb’s work as the Director of the Space Programme of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), coordinating satellite observations of weather information, the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC), a system of systems, how the Landsat archive became free and open data, the economic return and benefits of the satellite industry, the interconnectedness of the Earth system, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Nicole Kong from Purdue University joins us to talk about choosing environmental science as a major, remote sensing of giant panda habitats, a slightly different choice to work outside of academia in the transportation field, a GIS Day event with Larry Biehl, developments and opportunities in IndianaView, Nicole’s role as Associate Dean, the growth of geospatial information science at Purdue, GIS and remote sensing in business and public health, the importance of open source tools and open data, MultiSpec, multidisciplinary collaboration in research, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Jason Parent from the University of Rhode Island joins us to talk about not having any marketable skills from an environmental science degree, studying the expansion of cities over time through GIS, mapping cities with Landsat, field work with wind flow patterns around tree islands in the Everglades, dust from the Sahara reaching Florida, riding around in airboats, Jason’s work as the PI of Rhode Island View, modeling forest mortality with lidar and imagery, urban tree canopy analysis, mapping dead trees with aerial imagery, mapping vernal pools for habitat analysis, nature-based solutions, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Qiusheng Wu from the University of Tennessee joins us to talk about his being assigned to study GIS in China, the inspiration of Google Earth, the founding of TennesseeView, geemap, publishing geospatial books, Qiusheng’s book about Google Earth Engine and Python with Locate Press, the advantages of self-publishing, advancements in GeoAI, AI models applied to geospatial data, Qiusheng’s development of video tutorials and resources, sharing knowledge, advice for students, geospatial applications and careers, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

This is Round Three 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. Paige Brochu from the University of Vermont, Dr. Tracy DeLiberty from the University of Delaware, Ms. Amy Logan from Iowa State University, and Dr. Dana Peterson from the University of Kansas and we are discussing working with remote sensing and imagery in K-12 classrooms. We talk about the education-ready digital toolkits our guests are building, creating state level landcover maps, digital state atlases, lesson plans using maps and data in a variety of applications, challenges of incorporating geospatial technologies into a K-12 curriculum, supporting new teachers, curriculum insertion points, removing the software barriers and web applications, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Jason Tullis from the University of Arkansas joins us to talk about finding fossils in the mountains, the question of seeing a moon in a blue sky, attending school in England, being introduced to GIS in the US Forest Service summer program, mapping with aerial photos, cold-calling the University of South Carolina for graduate work, a choice between the CIA or academia, the importance of data provenance, remote sensing imagery and provenance, basic science on Mars, data replicability, a technical geography concentration in the geosciences, renaming remote sensing, the four futures, space exploration, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Karen Schuckman from RRC Companies and ASPRS joins us to talk about riding Argentinian horses on vacation, living the farm life and an equestrian background, Karen’s time as an international-level gymnast in high school, meteorologists who study meteors, remote sensing and oceanography, photogrammetry courses for surveying, a momentous summer picnic, teaching at Penn State, participation in ASPRS, aerial GPS and topographic lidar, the importance of locational accuracy, positional accuracy and automated processes, a growing demand for an understanding of photogrammetry, GeoWeek 2026, new developments at ASPRS, student chapters of ASPRS, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Robert Washington-Allen from the University of Nevada, Reno joins us to kick off 2026 with an extra-length episode where we talk about Robert’s time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho, the Curlew National Grassland, time-series imagery analysis, kudzu bug distribution, the REDD program, applications of Terrestrial Laser Scanner technology around the world, the dynamics of the Niassa Special Reserve in Mozambique, Robert’s work with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), an agricultural and natural resources atlas of Nevada, GRACE_FO applications for groundwater, below-ground biomass, and so much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com