Chris Peterson

Spock was always looking through the sensors on StarTrek. I wanted to do that! I started at General Electric's Digital Image Analysis Lab. and have not stopped looking at the Earth since. 40 years ago the DEC PDP 11/35 computer systems I programmed in assembler could barely handle a single 40 MB Landsat MSS image. I wanted to map the entire Earth. Over the years more capable systems allowed me to create geographically accurate image maps of larger areas. My dream was fulfilled when at Earth Satellite Corp. we completed a Landsat TM image map of the Earth. It has been used many places including Google Maps and Earth. While mapping the Earth I was the architect of the data processing systems and software that allowed us to complete these tasks. Now, I have focused on the places we could not map. Cloud cover has prevented electro-optical sensors from adequately mapping some tropical regions of the Earth. Using satellite radar imagery I am now mapping land cover change in those areas. While mapping those areas I found that radar more accurately maps man-made structures than electro-optical. The result is that I have now trained a team to use satellite radar to create an updated global temporal map of manmade built-up areas. What is next? I am looking for the next impossibly big data challenge!