Dr. Yuei-An Liou, members of Taiwanese delegation, and Dr. Soon-Dal Cho, co-chairman of EMSEA

In order to promote international visibility of National Space Organization (NSPO) of National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL), to popularize the use of Taiwanese satellite data, and to advance NSPO to become a key player in the field of global space communities, Dr. Yuei-An Liou, Advisor to NSPO, led a delegation of 17 members to attend the joint assembly (ISRS2006PORSEC) of International Symposium on Remote Sensing (ISRS) and Pan Ocean Remote Sensing Conference (PORSEC) held in Busan, Korea from November 2 to 4, 2006.As a member of Steering Committee of ISRS2006PORSEC and co-chairman of EMSEA (Environmental Monitoring from Space of East Asia), Dr. Liou gave a welcome speech at the opening ceremony in front of three hundreds and eighty participants from more than twenty countries on November 2. The speech detailed the outstanding achievements of space missions successfully launched by NSPO of NARL, Taiwan. Since the establishment of NSPO in 1991, three space missions have been successfully launched including high-spatial resolution FORMOSAT-2 satellite (in 2004) and meteorological FORMOSAT-3 satellites (in 2005). As an international community member, Taiwan has taken an active part and grown remarkably well in remote sensing research during the last decades. The crucial role of Taiwan’s space mission in the global community has come into light from the relief efforts after the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, which triggered a series of devastating tsunamis to spread throughout the Indian Ocean, killing people and inundating coastal communities across South and Southeast Asia including parts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India. Through the joint effort of NSPO, Center for Space and Remote Sensing Research (CSRSR) of NCU, and other institutions, Taiwan extends hands of cooperation by pROViding high-spatial FORMOSAT-2 images completely free of charge to over 60 countries for the international rescue efforts. Taiwan, as an active and constructive member of the international community, will actively share her resources with other counties for scientific and public use in future.After Dr. Liou’s speech, six national delegates among more than twenty participating countries were featured in a special panel to introduce their own country’s space missions, advance of satellite technology as well as scientific research and application. The six national delegates represented Korean Aerospace Research Institute, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Indian Space Application Center, Ocean University of China, NASA of USA, and Canadian Space Agency (ISRS2006PORSEC_Program.pdf).Taiwan delegation made remarkable contributions during the ISRS2006PORSEC. In total, seventeen papers were presented by Taiwanese scientists who actively took part in the steering committee, organizing committee, and technical committee. In particular, two major awards were presented to Taiwanese scientists. Firstly, Dr. Yuei-An Liou was awarded Honorary Life Membership of The Korean Society of Remote Sensing. Secondly, Miss Tzu-Yin Chang, Dr. Liou’s graduate student at National Central University, won the Student Prize Paper Competition from more than forty student papers. In addition, with the strengths and advantages of Taiwanese space science and technology, and Taiwanese readiness and teamwork, Taiwan beats India by 22 to 8 to become the host for 2010PORSEC.NSPO/NARL is to achieve the national mission, to integrate satellite technology, and to conduct advanced space science and application. By taking part in the ISRS2006PORSEC, we not only promote the international visibility of NSPO, but also demonstrate Taiwan is one of the top space technology countries in Asia and an important member of the Global space communities. By Dr. Yuei-An Liou, Advisor of NSPO, Endowed Chair Professor and Dean of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of Ching Yun University, and Professor of CSRSR of National Central University