Advertise on podcast: Spatial Signals

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

Chris Cooper from G2G Consulting joins us for this special episode to talk about the whole process behind federal funding which influences so many activities and projects today - we discuss coloring in maps in red and blue on election night as a child, Chris’ work on Rob Portman’s 2010 Senate race, the job of a Staff Assistant in a Congressional office, addressing policy issues on Capitol Hill, the activities of the different Congressional Committees for Appropriations, the process of funding requests, visiting Capitol Hill to discuss GIS and remote sensing, 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

Santosh Panda from the University of Alaska Fairbanks joins us to talk about coal mine reclamation in India, a choice between petroleum and remote sensing, helicopter flights to remote field sites, Alaskan permafrost modeling and mapping, AlaskaView, statewide forest health and change, boreal forest change through time, MOOC development for GIS and remote sensing, a traveling permafrost exhibit, student training for Alaskan wildfire mitigation with geospatial tools, 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

Jeong Chang “JC” Seong from University of West Georgia joins us to talk about staying up all night to beat Tetris, the power of a PhD degree, working for Erdas with Landsat 7 data, being a faculty member at Northern Michigan University, a database for managing AmericaView’s activities, the state of Georgia atlas project, GeorgiaView mini-grants and collaborations, the Geographical Bulletin online journal, the AmericaView Journal of Earth Observation and Geospatial Applications, traffic congestion modeling, fisheries and food security, and more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Pablo Viramontes from the New Mexico Department of Agriculture joins us to talk about his time as an ROTC cadet, GIS in the intelligence field, an internship with the Bureau of Land Management in New Mexico, gathering data at the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, geospatial work with the TRIO Upward Bound program, K-12 geography education, visiting the White House, the National Space Council, the El Paso Science Festival, the Valencia Soil and Water Conservation District, agriculture applications, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Paige Brochu from University of Vermont joins us to talk about the influence of Jurassic Park, archeology in the Caribbean, mapping Lake Champlain shipwrecks, Benedict Arnold’s gunboat, the Spatial Analysis Lab (SAL) at UVM, interning with the Nature Conservancy in Rhode Island, a spatial connection via Strava that ended up in a Postdoc position, planetary health, meeting with policy makers on Capitol Hill, VermontView and Jarlath O’Neill-Dunne, drone imagery and the resources of the SAL used for disaster response in Vermont, GIS and remote sensing for addressing public health issues, spatial analysis related to drinking water, analysis of greenspace and green infrastructure, training the next generation of geospatial experts, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Tyler Erickson from VorGeo joins us to talk about foldable paper maps, working with remotely sensed data at a technology non-profit, the founding of MichiganView, open Landsat data, Google Earth Engine, Tyler’s time working at Google on the Earth Engine project, the founding of VorGeo and the work being done there, CTrees and above-ground biomass measurement, OpenET and water data, SAR data, SatCamp, advanced machine learning techniques, foundation models and embeddings, geospatial applications of large language modules, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Nancy French from the Michigan Tech Research Institute at Michigan Technological University joins us to talk about the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM), SAR applications, field data in conjunction with radar remote sensing to analyze fire effects, the Bettles fire in Alaska, MichiganView, wildfires and remote sensing, wildfire smoke and health, estimating fuel consumption, fuel moisture monitoring, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

JB Sharma from the University of North Georgia joins us to talk about JB’s transition from a physics background to geospatial technologies, grassroots STEM literacy, how to get students interested in remote sensing, JB’s work with AmericaView, AI-based techniques for handling the volume of remote sensing data, deep learning, GEOBIA for classifying UAS data, learning communities in online learning, ASPRS, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Joseph Kerski from Joseph Kerski LLC, University of Denver and Auburn University joins us to talk about growing up in a motel in western Colorado, making maps as a kid that included address ranges, working at USGS, being part of the Esri Education team, Joseph’s passion for teaching geography, spatial thinking concepts, multidisciplinary teaching, mathematics and spatial thinking, teaching with geospatial and developing a general public course, new education projects, and much, much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Lisa Wirth, the Program Director of AmericaView, joins us to talk about Lisa's graduate work in Fisheries in Alaska, tagging fall chum salmon on the Yukon River, having field instruments freeze up, tracking fish with radiotelemetry, thermal remote sensing of rivers, using SAR imagery in Alaska, using a FLIR camera on a Cessna, the Alaska Geobotanical Center, AlaskaView, Augmented Reality sandboxes, managing all of the StateViews of AmericaView, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com 

This is Round Two 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. Donna Delparte from the University of Idaho, Dr. Bruce Millett from South Dakota State University, and Dr. Lance Yarbrough from the University of Mississippi, and we're discussing all things drones. We talk about the state of the union of drones today, the impact of the National Defense Authorization Act (the NDAA) and the American Security Drone Act on drones, sensors, and data collection, the Blue List and the Green List for UAS and sensors, the future of drones in research and education, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Geoff Bland, Andy Henry, Lisa Ogiemwonyi, and Sallie Smith from the NASA AREN (Aerokats and Rover Education Network) team join us to talk about the beginnings of the AREN project, Aerokats and remote sensing via kites, flying the first educational UAS with sensors on the Channel Islands of California, RSESTeP, ICARUS, incorporating remote sensing into K-12 classrooms, place-based education, the development of Aeropods, the various camera systems and sensors that can be used on Aeropods, high resolution imagery from kites, looking at change over time in imagery, collecting air quality data, teacher training in the AREN workshops, local community projects, operations and teamwork, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com