Since the beginning of the IEEE GRSS society founded 54 years ago and the first IGARSS held in 1980, the GRSS tradition has been making our symposium worldwide. This is not only because of the global nature of our society, i.e. geosciences and remote sensing related, but also the GRSS leaders have an open mind to foresee fast advancement of remote sensing all over the world. We are very pleased that this time is our turn, Beijing will host you all!

Beijing has a history of about 3000 years, and the last 1000 years as the capital city of China. When you come to Beijing, you may have a close look at those Chinese historical sites, almost everywhere in the center part of the city, such as particularly the largest royal palace – the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Jingshen Park and the Beihai Park, and the Summer Palace and the Great wall in the suburbs. All of these are such unique that you can only find in Beijing and cannot miss them if you want to know some of the Chinese history, culture and the marvelous beauty of China.

As a geoscientist and remote sensing engineers, you will have good opportunities to discuss remote sensing with Chinese colleagues at IGARSS 2016. Few hundreds of Chinese scholars and students from Universities and research institutions will attend the symposium. During recent decades, China has developed several space-borne remote sensing programs, such as Feng-Yun meteorological satellite series, Hai-Yang oceanographical satellite series, and Huang-Jing environmental remote sensing satellite series, etc.. All research achievements of these programs will be presented in this IGARSS.

The theme of this symposium is “Advancing the understanding of our living planet”. As you all know, the earth is a living planet. Its interior, its surface, its atmosphere are constantly changing. The rules and principles of the changes are still remaining mystery. To advancing our understanding of the rules are the objectives of all IGARSS participants and GRSS members. We will provide an open, free and cross disciplinary platform to all of you for discussing and advancing our knowledge in understanding the planet Earth.

So do not wait, please plan your trip and prepare your presentation for IGARSS 2016. We are looking forward to meeting you all in Beijing!