You are visitor number
since July 1,
1995.
Visit my blog!
I received my BA Honours(Geography)
from Carleton University in June 1997.
I've put the analysis
from my Honours thesis on my website. When I have time, I may put the
full text of the report online as well.
Currently, I'm a senior IT officer in the Survey Operations Division of
Statistics Canada.
If you want, you can visit my ride
log.
In case you're curious, I spent two and a half years working for Calian
Technical Services as an Operations Administrator at the Canada
Centre for Remote Sensing's Satellite Acquisition Service.
CCRS tracks several remote sensing satellites:
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RADARSAT-1
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Canada's first synthetic aperture RADAR satellite. It is operated by the
Canadian Space Agency.
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SPOT-1,-2 and -4
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The SPOT satellites are owned by the French space agency CNES
and operated by SpotImage SA. SpotImage
SA has an American company called SpotImage
Corporation (SICORP), located in Reston, VA.
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Landsat-5
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The American Landsat programme has undergone many changes over the years.
It started out as a public sector programme in the late 1960's. During
Ronald Regan's administration it was decided to privatize the program.
Landsat-4 and Landsat-5 are operated by SpaceImaging/EOSAT.
Landsat-6, the follow-on to Landsat-5, failed during launch.
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Landsat-7
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Landsat-7 was successfully launched
in April 1999. It is being run by the US
Geological Survey. Space craft operations are being handled by the
Landsat-7 Mission Operation Center (MOC) at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center.
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ERS-2
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The European Space Agency has two synthetic
aperture RADAR satellites, ERS-1 and ERS-2. Currently, ERS-1 is in hibernation
and is used infrequently. ERS-2 is the primary satellite in this family
of satellites.
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NOAA-14
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One of several polar orbiting satellites operated by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NOAA-14 provides relatively
coarse environmental data (approximately 1km pixels). These polar orbiters
are "free" satellites -- with a relatively inexpensive setup anyone can
receive data from them.
Over the last few years, I've been involved with some very interesting
organizations:
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The International Council on Monuments
and Sites (ICOMOS).
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I joined ICOMOS in '92 and shortly thereafter started them down the road
of "getting on the 'net". ICOMOS was the first international heritage conservation
organization on the Internet. Initially, ICOMOS had a Waffle site inside
the Pinetree.org domain connected via UUCP. Over the years, I created a
gopher server and later a webserver which were both initially hosted on
a Sun computer in a government department. As these two servers became
busier, it became evident that ICOMOS should set up their own server, so
we purchased a 486 (state of the art at the time) from The
Clones Society and put it on the net with the help of Newforce Communications.
Since then, ICOMOS moved its network connection from Newforce to The Clones
Society where it is currently located.
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The Geomatics Industry Association of Canada
(GIAC)
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During the Winter '96 term, I did a practicum with GIAC and helped them
get on the Internet.
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Canadian Owners and Pilots Association
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The Canadian Owners and Pilots Association is the national body representing
Canadian pilots to all levels of government.
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Quoting from their Mission Statement:
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COPA raises the awareness of important issues facing the flying community,
promotes air safety through education and works to lower the cost of flying.
COPA offers a free year's membership to every student pilot upon the occasion
of their first solo flight.
What else am I up to? Well...
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Flying! On August 8, 1997, the back of my student pilot permit was endorsed
as a result of passing both the flying portion and the written portion
of my license exams. This means that I am a fully licensed private pilot.
I did my both my ground school and flight training at Ottawa
Aviation Services, which is based at MacDonald-Cartier International
Airport in Ottawa. Their primary trainer is the Diamond
DA-20 Katana, a two-person
low-wing aircraft constructed using composite technologies. If you ever
have a chance to fly in one do because you won't be disappointed.
At the end of July 1998, I received my night rating. This allows
me to fly VFR at night. Night flying is amazing -- smooth as glass
as my instructor used to say.
Because I'm a pilot, it is important to understand the weather patterns
in the areas where I'm flying. To this end, I've put together a small collection
of links which make it easier to find out what's going on weather-wise.
The reports presented are METARs
and TAFs.
NavCanada runs an Aviation
Weather Services website for pilots.
Hobbies and other interests:
I
have a PGP key in
case you ever want to send me secure
email.
Other miscellaneous things...
I'm in the process of redesigning my website so I haven't figured out where
these links belong...
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For a third-year course I took in the Spring 1995
term, I created a precipitation model for Maui,
HI. A couple images are available:
![[Image]](rain4500_thumb.gif)
![[Image]](rain7545_thumb.gif)
Click here
for the boring demographic information.
Click here
to see a picture of my house taken from a 1:15000 colour air-photo taken
on August 26, 1993.
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