First LOC  Meeting (05/08/99)

The first meeting of the Local Organizing Committee  (LOC) was held in the at NIO Goa on 05/08/99  and was attended by Dr. E. Desa (Chairman), Sh. L.V.G. Rao (Co-chairman), Dr. Elgar Desa (Convenor),  Dr. T. Pankajakshan (Co-Convenor), Dr. P.M. Muralidharan (Co-Convenor), Dr. M.S.Narayanan, Dr. R.R. Rao, Dr. R.C.Panigrahy, Dr. Shailesh Nayak, Dr. S.Prasanna Kumar, Dr. S.C. Shenoi, Dr. M.R.Ramesh Kumar (members), Dr. H.B. Menon, (Goa  University rep.), Dr. H.H. Gowda, (ISRO Rep.). 

The Chairman welcomed the members and appraised them about the Pacific Ocean  Remote Sensing Conference and the progress of its preparation. He expressed  satisfaction about the preparatory work  for  the Conference and  remarked that  similar meetings  will serve as platforms for building healthy links with other  national and international organisations. He invited  the members to  make use of  this opportunity by taking active participation. 

Sh. LVG Rao presented the background of the Conference and appraised the  members about the relevance and timing of the conference in the present  Indian scenario. 

Dr. Elgar Desa said that  the conference schedule is well timed to fall in the best season of Goa, and appraised the members that the first announcement of the conference was distributed to about 3000 mailing addresses both national and international and  received many  responses to attend the conference. 

Sponsorship

The PORSEC sponsorship status was presented by Dr. T. Pankajakshan. 

Dr. Shailesh Naik opened up the discussion on PORSEC funds, accounting and utilisation of the unspent money for promoting Indian Remote Sensing  Society.  Chairman expressed the views of PORSEC secretariat that the unspent money should go back to the PORSEC society. Later Dr. Shailesh  inquired  about  the chances of forming an Indian chapter of PORSEC for effective utilization of the  funds.  Dr. Desa suggested to keep in mind  the prospect of Indian Remote sensing during the next five years while discussing the utilization of funds.   In reply to this  Dr.Narayan talked in detail about the science plan for ocean  research. 

Inaugural Program

Dr. Muraleedharan initiated discussion on keynote address and national presentations for the PORSEC 2000 conference. It was decided by the members to have the following speeches during the forenoon session. 

                Welcome  address        -      Chairman, PORSEC 
                Inaugural  address         -     Chief Guest 
                Presidential address     -      President, PORSEC 
                Keynote address           -      to be decided 

Dr. Desa believes that the Keynote should be the first address  to set for the entire proceedings.The unanimous choice of Dr. Abdul Kalam as the chief guest of PORSEC 2000 conference is  declared by the chairman and Dr. Narayanan  will be the contact point for pursuing this matter. 

According to Dr. Muraleedharan, the national presentation should cover the  entire Indian space research scenario ending with the launch of OCEANSAT I  and the future programs as well.  This should also touch the validation  programs and applications. The Department of Space (DOS) was correctly chosen as the organization  identified for taking up this responsibility. Being a major laboratory of DOS, Space Applications  Center (SAC)  has taken up the responsibility of  national presentation.  NRSA, another important laboratory of DOS was also keen on taking up this responsibility. Finally it was agreed that SAC may  co-ordinate with NRSA to make it a reality. 

Scientific Session

Dr. Shenoi briefed about the technical session, workshops, poster sessions etc. There will be four parallel venues for four days and there will have several parallel sessions. Each speaker will be given 15-20 minutes for oral presentation. A separate session for IRS P4 was suggested by Dr. Shailesh Naik. 

Training Course

Dr. Prassana Kumar  briefed about PORSEC training course, covering the following aspects:  course topics, number  of participants, selection of participants, etc. Dr. Shailesh' s suggestion of charging nominal fees for the training program was acceptable to the members as they felt that this step would create some  kind of seriousness among the participants. 
 Dr. Honna Gowda proposed that the themes may be clubbed  into  the following three broad categories 

 1. Ocean colour and thermal infra red 
 2. Microwave remote sensing for ocean - atmosphere applications 
 3. High resolution sensors  for coastal zone studies. 

An intensive  training course for four to five days was proposed by chairman which includes lectures and 
hands on training. The members felt that the training course should be prior to the Conference. The trainees 
include Indian  and foreign participants. Selected delegates (Indian and foreign)  of the conference will be 
the resource persons. 

Dr. Shailesh Naik proposed that there should be a nominal fee for  training course. 

Workshop

Dr. M. R. Ramesh Kumar presented a proposal  to organize three days  workshops parallel to the conference. The proposed themes  are

Skin SST and its connection with air sea flux
Climate and circulation of the Indian Ocean 
Ocean Color and primary productivity
Information techology on remote sensing data management

Exhibition

Dr. Elgar Desa briefed the members the importance of inviting exhibitors for the conference.  Dr. Shailesh suggested separate plan should be made and sent to 100 exhibitors (national and international). 

Internet Session

Albert  Gouvia briefed about internet session. The members felt that the details of the internet session should be worked out. Dr. Elgar was requested to contact instrument - manufacturers to invite them for showcasing such  instruments for organizing internet sessions. 

Venue

Since the expected delegates for the conference is  expected to exceed  200, the members expressed the need to take care of the logistic support for such a large number well in advance. 

Registration

Dr. Shailesh suggested that  early registration should be encouraged by charging a nominal late fee for those participants who register after the dead line. 

Cultural Evenings 

Dr. Desa suggested we should have one popular lecture on remote sensing and another one on "history of  Goa"  along with some cultural programs. 

Publication

Sh. LVG Rao initiated discussion on publicationof Conference proceedings. Dr. Pankajakshan said that as in the case of earlier conferences the hard copy proceedings shall be published prior to the conference for distribution to the registered  participants. The possibility of publishing the proceeding in CD shall be worked out and can be finalised in next meeting.  He also informed members about  existence of an editorial committee under the chairmanship of Prof. Robert Brown  and such matters as bringing out CD and special issues of some reputed journals have to be finalised by the editorial committee. 

The meeting ended with thanks to the chair.